Records of the Pan Africanist Congress of South Africa

Documents, correspondence, publications and journals relating to the Pan-Africanist Congress of South Africa (PAC), 1959-1971.
* PAC/1: Documents, covering the period 1959-1969 and concerning such matters as: the founding of the PAC; the anti-pass campaign of 1960; the All-African People's Conference in Pietermaritzberg 1961; the 1961 stay-at-home; plans for a general uprising in 1963; British co-operation with South African authorities in Basutoland 1966; 1967 leadership dispute; and the 1969 Khartoum Conference in support of African Liberation movements.
* PAC/2: Lionel Morrison: documents on the Pan-Africanist Congress 1966-1967, leadership disputes.
* PAC/3: Articles about the Pan-Africanist Congress, including four by Lionel Morrison from the Afro-Asian Journalist (Jakarta) 1965.

The Pan-Africanist Congress, a breakaway movement from the African National Congress, was founded in Orlando near Johannesburg in 1959. One year later, after organising an anti Pass Campaign which resulted in the Sharpeville shootings, the PAC and its parent organisation, the ANC, were banned. While the leaders were in gaol in the period 1961-1962, an underground movement started up, which became known as POQO. Its members were ex PAC men and they professed loyalty to Robert Sobukwe, the PAC president and took instructions from the Maseru based PAC headquarters. A general uprising was planned for April 1963, but these preparations were generally thwarted by arrests and betrayals. So instead of a coordinated series of uprisings in the urban centres there some attacks on police stations, attempts to murder government chiefs, and a few premature revolts of migrant workers such as the one in Paarl in 1962. Despite various claims by the government to have crushed the movement, POQO/PAC plots continued to be unearthed by the police fairly frequently until the late 1960s. In 1976 there were three PAC trials. Outside the country the PAC has established offices in various African countries and at the United Nations as well as London, and there is still considerable rivalry between its leadership and that of the multiracial ANC. The movements headquarters are today in Dar-es-Salaam.

Records are open to the public, subject to the overriding provisions of relevant legislation, including data protection laws.

The Pan-Africanist Congress, a breakaway movement from the African National Congress, was founded in Orlando near Johannesburg in 1959. One year later, after organising an anti Pass Campaign which resulted in the Sharpeville shootings, the PAC and its parent organisation, the ANC, were banned. While the leaders were in gaol in the period 1961-1962, an underground movement started up, which became known as POQO. Its members were ex PAC men and they professed loyalty to Robert Sobukwe, the PAC president and took instructions from the Maseru based PAC headquarters. A general uprising was planned for April 1963, but these preparations were generally thwarted by arrests and betrayals. So instead of a coordinated series of uprisings in the urban centres there some attacks on police stations, attempts to murder government chiefs, and a few premature revolts of migrant workers such as the one in Paarl in 1962. Despite various claims by the government to have crushed the movement, POQO/PAC plots continued to be unearthed by the police fairly frequently until the late 1960s. In 1976 there were three PAC trials. Outside the country the PAC has established offices in various African countries and at the United Nations as well as London, and there is still considerable rivalry between its leadership and that of the multiracial ANC. The movements headquarters are today in Dar-es-Salaam.

A reprographics service is available to researchers subject to the access restrictions outlined above. Copying will not be undertaken if there is any risk of damage to the document. Copies are supplied in accordance with the Borthwick Institute for Archives' terms and conditions for the supply of copies, and under provisions of any relevant copyright legislation. Permission to reproduce images of documents in the custody of the Borthwick Institute must be sought.

Further accruals are not expected.

Borthwick Institute: Patrick Duncan Archive (GB 193 DU).
Journals, including: The Pioneer; The Africanist; Mafube (The Dawn of Freedom); Pan-Africanist Congress Newsletter; Black Star; PAC News and Views; Africanist News and Views; Azania News; Azania Combat, were held in the JBM Library.

Some of the documents are originals, others are copies derived from the collections held by the South African Institute of Race Relations, Lionel Morrison, and various other sources.

Tom Lodge, Pan-Africanist Congress (York, 1975).

Published

GB 193