Cory Library and Historical Archives · Coloured National Convention Collection, Malmesbury 1961

Coloured National Convention Collection, Malmesbury 1961

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Title: Coloured National Convention Collection, Malmesbury 1961
Alternative Title: South African Coloured National Convention Documents 1961
Description: The Coloured National Convention Collection, Malmesbury 1961 is a digitised archival collection from the Cory Library and Historical Archives at Rhodes University documenting key materials related to the South African Coloured National Convention held in 1961. This collection comprises seven items—including official correspondence, minutes, attendance registers, programmes, committee documents, policy statements, and explanatory texts—that collectively shed light on the organisation, goals, and internal deliberations of the Convention, which brought together Coloured political organisations during the apartheid era. The materials reflect the strategies, ideological discussions, and social context of the Coloured political movement as it sought to articulate its position within the broader struggle against racial discrimination in South Africa. Held in Malmesbury (with connections to the Claremont Civic Centre, Cape Town), the Convention represents an important moment in the history of anti-apartheid political action by Coloured activists. This collection supports research into South African political history, race relations under apartheid, and the organisational history of Coloured political movements.
Language: English
Subject: Coloured National Convention; Political organisations; Civic organisations; Coloured political movements; South African political history; Malmesbury; 1961
Spatial Coverage: Malmesbury, South Africa; Claremont (Cape Town), South Africa
Temporal Coverage: 1961 (Convention and related documents)
Format: Digital images

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Letter from P.C. Kruger
Biographical and descriptive notes of incidents leading up to the National Coloured Convention in 1961.
Portion of minutes as well as the attendance register of the Coloured National Convention, held at Malmesbury - code name Chatworth - on the 8th to 10th of July 1961
Portion of minutes as well as the attendance register of the Coloured National Convention, held at Malmesbury - code name Chatworth - on the 8th to 10th of July 1961. Note attached dated 21 April 1964.
South African Coloured National Convention, Claremont Civic Centre, 7th to 10th July 1961
Programme outline for the South African Coloured National Convention, which took place in Claremont Civic Centre, Cape Town, from the 7th to the 10th of July 1961.
South African Coloured National Convention. National Continuation Committee. Annexure "A" to the minutes of 7th 1961 meeting
Members of area committees of the South African Coloured National Convention.
Suggestions: For consideration at Meeting of Preliminary Convention Committee, Cape Town: Monday 11th September, 1961
Suggestions for consideration at the Meeting of Preliminary Convention Committee, placed before the Council of the South African National Convention Movement.
The road forward: a policy statement of the South African Coloured People's Congress, for the consideration of the National Convention of Coloured People
A Policy Statement of the South African Coloured People's Congress, for the consideration of the National Convention of Coloured People.
Why a "Coloured" National Convention
We would like to stress at the outset that we are not organising this Convention in order to “gang up” with persons of other race-groups against others. Some people say that we should have nothing to do with Africans, because we have nothing in common with them. This is utter folly. We could mention several important factors which we do have in common with them. There is our common humanity, there is our common South Africanism, there is a great deal of common discrimination under South African laws, and there is, in regard to a great and growing number of Africans, a common Western view of life. We would like to see developed a wider South Africanism, capable of embracing all the peoples of this country, whatever their race, colour or creed. Let nobody say that because we are organising a Convention as a Coloured group, we are recognising and accepting the fact that we are a separate groun, or that we wish to be so regarded in the laws of the land. We repeat that we are a separate group by exclusion, by discrimination, by virtue of laws which we regard as wrong. And it is to destroy this false, separate identity that we are dedicating ourselves in this Convention.