DEDICATION TO BABA ARCHIE GUMEDE

"Baba Archie was such a great humanist and was not recognized for his tremendous contribution.
May he be remembered as a hero! Hamba Kahle Baba.
You will always be remembered.
Dennis, Jenny, Rebecca and Sibonelo."

(Old Fort Place where the Durban Civic is situated has had its name changed to Archie Gumede Place).

Archibald Gumede was born in 1914. He led the Natal Delegates to the Congress of the people at Kliptown where the freedom charter was drawn in 1955. He qualified as an attorney-at-law and practiced in Pietermaritzburg. He was elected in 1994 to the National Parliament, of which he remained a member until his death in 1998.”

Baba Archie Gumede was the son of Josiah Tshangana Gumede (1870 - 1947).

Josiah Gumede was :

"An outstanding leader talented in music and a prominent journalist. He was a politician for the cause of the liberation of the oppressed peoples of Africa, Asia, South Africa and the world. Josiah made his first trip to Europe in the years 1892 as a talented musician accompanying a Zulu choir. He studied in Grahamstown and then became a teacher retiring to become personal advisor to numerous chiefs. He was thus an authority in respect of traditional and urban life of his people.
In 1906 he made his second visit overseas, to London to discuss a Sotho claim in Orange Free State. Hence he was not confining his work amongst the Zulu's of Natal. All his life he wanted a South Africa wide national liberation body. In 1927 he made his fourth visit overseas to the Brussels conference. Josiah Gumede remained as proprietor of ABANT-BATHO, the congress paper to which he gave his great journalistic talents."