Message by Albert Luthuli on the eve of Multi-Racial Conference, 1 November 1957

Much has been said and written about the forthcoming multi-racial conference to be held in Johannesburg on December 3-5, 1957. Very little, if anything at all of what is new, can be said about it now. But the need to stress and underline its significance and rally the people to its support remains paramount and urgent. It is to achieve this "underlining" that I have written this "EVE-OF-THE-CONFERENCE MESSAGE."

The main concern of this conference will be to seek means and ways of improving and establishing better race relations in our country. The progress of any country depends on the full utilisation of its resources, especially its human resources. It is generally agreed by all honest people that on this human factor the Union of South Africa has a regrettable record. We have failed to live up to our Motto: EX UNITATE VIRES.

The result could not be otherwise than strained and estranged human relations. No team-work can be built on master and servant relations as obtains in our country between white and black, with whites claiming to be masters for ever.

It is generally agreed that under the South African policy of segregation, especially its more virulent form, the apartheid policy of the Nationalist Party, race relations have deteriorated to dangerous levels, not only as between white and black, but also within the white group itself: English-Afrikaner relations leave much to be desired. There is a complete breakdown in contact between the Government and the non-whites and hardly any friendly contact between whites and blacks on a personal level.

The same disunity is being deliberately promoted among African tribes and already as a result we are witnessing shocking and most dangerous inter-tribal factions, especially in urban centres. All this sets the country on the road to disaster and not to peace and prosperity.

It is no wonder that the majority of the population, the non-white, being denied all chances of unlimited advance according to individual capabilities and inclinations, are developing a growing spirit of frustration and resentment at exclusively white rule of the Union of South Africa. All honest and loyal citizens of the Union should spare no effort to arrest the deterioration and positively work for the realisation of a true democratic South Africa, and not a South Africa of "Whites only."

There is time to avert disaster that must result from such strained relations. Herein lies the importance of this coming multi-racial conference. It can do much to accelerate the movement towards a truly united Union of South Africa. I welcome it as another noble joint effort by freedom lovers in our country to achieve this end.

We must not be unmindful of the difficulties and limitations that face such a somewhat omnibus conference. But we have good reason to hope that at least there will be a large number of men and women of goodwill who will give a positive progressive tone to the meeting to make it achieve something that will bring us nearer to our goal. In our situation, whilst stating and fighting for our objectives relentlessly, we should remember that the first important thing is "not where you are but where you are headed to." I hope this conference will get us headed to a truly democratic South Africa.

I agree with one of my colleagues who, writing under the caption "Towards Unity," said: "There is no need to regret this diversity of movement and campaigns or regret this multiplicity of efforts for we are each travelling in the same direction – against apartheid tyranny – and our paths are bound to converge."

It is therefore not too much to hope that this conference shall succeed to canvass for greater support among women and men of goodwill, especially among the whites, for people who will accept and pledge themselves to work for a multi-racial South Africa founded on equality, liberty and fraternity: a goal worthy of any nation claiming to be civilised.

This conference must succeed because it has happy and noble antecedents. It is the child of the united voice of African leaders who, at a widely-representative all-African conference held in Bloemfontein in October 1956, under the auspices of the African Interdenominational Ministers’ Federation, declared unanimously against apartheid and called for a broader consultation among South Africans at some multi-racial conference: so this conference.

This Bioemfontein spirit should assure the conference of the full support of responsible African leaders and the mass of the African people who accept their leadership. It must succeed because it comes at a time when the spirit of unity to fight oppression unitedly is growing more than ever before among all sections of our nation. This is evidenced by the unparalleled unity amongst the progressive groups such as the Congresses, the Liberal Party of South Africa and a large number of politically-unattached people.

I urge upon my people, in a spirit of give and take to give full support to this forthcoming historic conference. They must do all that is humanly possible to make it breathe a spirit of reality, unity and co-operation.

RIGHT MUST TRIUMPH OVER WRONG SO THIS CONFERENCE MUST TRIUMPH OVER APARTHEID.

ES Reddy