Anton Lembede

Anton Lembede was a South African activist and founding president of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). He has been described as "the principal architect of South Africa's first full-fledged ideology of African nationalism." Lembede had a strong influence on Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo and worked with them to reform the ANC, which the Youth League described as "a body of gentlemen with clean hands". He never saw the success of Black activism that enabled Black South Africans to be treated equally; he died in 1947, aged 33.