Albert Luthuli

An account of the political career of Albert Luthuli, former President of the African National Congress (ANC). It centres around the launching of the ANC's armed struggle in 1961. Scott Couper argues that Luthuli did not support the initiation of violence; and that his ecclesiastical tradition embedded within him the primacy of democracy, education, sacrificial service, multiracialism and egalitarianism. However, these same influences rendered him obsolete as a political leader within an increasingly radicalised, desperate and violent environment.