Abdullah Abdurahman
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Abdullah Abdurahman (18 December 1872 – 2 February 1940) was a South African politician and physician, born in
Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...
,
Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...
. He was the first
Coloured Coloureds () are multiracial people in South Africa, Namibia and, to a smaller extent, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Their ancestry descends from the interracial mixing that occurred between Europeans, Africans and Asians. Interracial mixing in South ...
city councillor of
Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
, and the first ever Coloured South African to win election to a public body. He led the anti-segregationist movement African Political Organization established in 1902.


Early life

Abdurahman was the son of Muslim Indians whose parents were greengrocers. His grandparents were slaves, possibly from India, who had bought their freedom. After receiving a good education in Wellington and Cape Town where he attended the South African College Schools, he went to the
University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...
to study medicine in 1888, qualifying as a doctor in 1893. It was in Glasgow that he met his first wife, Nellie Potter James. Upon returning to South Africa he set up a thriving private practice in Cape Town.


Local government career

In 1904 he was elected Cape Town's first Coloured city councillor, a position he held almost uninterrupted until his death. As city councillor he worked to improve the conditions of the
Cape Coloured Cape Coloureds () are a South African group of Coloured people who are from the Cape region in South Africa which consists of the Western Cape, Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape. Their ancestry comes from the interracial mixing between th ...
community, especially within the field of education; he helped set up the first
secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
s for Coloured people in Cape Town. From 1923 to 1937 he chaired many of the council's Committees, including the Streets and Drainage Committee, which gave him an increasingly strong influence on local government. Aburahman was also the first Coloured person to be elected to the
Cape Provincial Council The Cape Provincial Council was the provincial council (South Africa), provincial council of the Cape Province of South Africa. It was created by the South Africa Act 1909, with effect from the formation of the Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910 ...
in 1914, a position he held until his death.


African Political Organisation

The greatest political achievements, however, of Abdurahman's political life, were connected to his involvement with the African Political Organisation. Elected president in 1905, his contribution to the party's success was so great that the party was often jokingly referred to as Abdurahman's Political Organisation. The party's goal was to fight the increasing racial oppression in the country, initially mainly on behalf of the Coloured (or mixed race) people who made up the majority of the doctor's constituents in
District Six District Six (Afrikaans: ''Distrik Ses'') is a residential neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa, located next to the city's Cape Town CBD, CBD. In 1959, people of color were banned from the area and most of them were resettled in Gugulet ...
. Abdurahman led a delegations to
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
to secure franchise rights for the Coloured population in 1906. In 1909, before the creation of the
Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa (; , ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day South Africa, Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the British Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Tra ...
in 1910, Dr Abdurahman participated in a second delegation to London to try to have the
Cape Qualified Franchise The Cape Qualified Franchise was the system of multi-racial Suffrage, franchise that was adhered to in the Cape Colony, and in the Cape Province in the early years of the Union of South Africa. Qualifications for the right to vote at parliamenta ...
extended to all black South Africans. This delegation was led by
William Schreiner William Philip Schreiner (30 August 1857 – 28 June 1919) was a South African barrister and politician who served as the eighth Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1898 to 1900, during the Second Boer War. Early life Schreiner was bor ...
and included members of the black community who would form the
African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...
in 1912. It too was unsuccessful. Upon his return to South Africa the doctor reached out to African and Indian political movements in an attempt to resist the rising tide of racism. In 1925 Dr Abdurahman was asked to lead a delegation to the
Viceroy of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor of ...
by the
South African Indian Congress The South African Indian Congress (SAIC) was an umbrella body founded in 1921 to coordinate between political organisations representing South African Indians, Indians in the various provinces of South Africa. Its members were the Natal Indian ...
. He met Lord Reading who was deeply impressed. The viceroy wrote to London: ‘Dr Rahaman icput forward powerful and well-argued statements of disabilities of humiliating description in social, political and economic life which have been imposed on Indians by legislation in Union (of South Africa) and of apprehension not without ground that contemplated Asiatic legislation will render positions of Indians wholly impossible….Much stress was laid by Dr Rahaman on favourable treatment of white element in population composed in many cases of races not born in or loyal to British Empire at expense of Indians born in and loyal to British connection…I found the position very difficult. I am deeply impressed by the humiliations to which Indians in South Africa are subjected, and by the gravity of the implications of the projected legislation which will be hurried through the second reading stage in the new year.’ During the visit Dr Abdurahman also addressed the
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...
in Kanpur in December 1925, making a considerable impression with his impassioned speech. ‘Wherever Dr Rehman and his colleagues have been and by this time they have practically covered the length and breadth of the country they have met with unanimous warmth and welcome from the people of India’, wrote the Sunday Times on 31 January 1926. In the end, however, the racist legislation introduced by J.B.M. Hertzog defeated attempts to preserve the South Africa's conservative but liberal order. African men in the Cape lost the vote in 1936. The Doctor's campaigns - like the campaigns of the
African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...
the
South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded on 12 February 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), and tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by t ...
and the Non-European Unity Movement in this period - bore little fruit. By the late 1930s, other political parties, such as the more radical National Liberation League, had taken the initiative.


Death and legacy

On 2 February 1940, Abdurahman died of a
cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...
. His funeral was attended by over 30,000 people. After his death, the party he had built up went into rapid decline. His political legacy is a mixed one; modern, more radical commentators see him as overly accommodating to the white authorities, and as far as practical results are concerned, the achievements of his political career were limited. On the other hand, there is little doubt that he was the most powerful South African Coloured politician of his time, and his popularity in the non-European community was immense, as was the respect he enjoyed with the white elite. In 1999,
Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...
posthumously awarded Dr. Abdurahman the ''
Order for Meritorious Service The Order for Meritorious Service is a South African National Order that consisted of two classes, in gold and silver, and was awarded to deserving South African citizens. The order was discontinued on 2 December 2002. Abdurahman was married twice: once to the British Helen (Nellie) Potter James, whom he met in Glasgow. They had two daughters, Waradea "Rosie" and Zainunnisa (Cissie) Gool, and divorced in 1923. His younger daughter from this marriage, Cissie (1900–1963), became an important political figure in her own right, as a municipal councillor in Cape Town. His second marriage was in 1925 to Margaret May Stansfield. They had one daughter, Begum (who married the physician Ralph Hendrickse), and two sons, Abdul and Nizam.


Notes


Further reading


Dr. Abdullah Abdurahman
(''South African History Online'')

(''South African History Online'') * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abdurahman, Abdullah 1872 births 1940 deaths People from Wellington, Western Cape South African politicians of Indian descent 20th-century South African physicians African Political Organization politicians Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of South African College Schools Cape Colony people South African Muslims