Tambo, Oliver (1917-1993)

South African nationalist politician, in exile 1960-90, president of the African National Congress (ANC) 1977-91. Because of poor health, he was given the honorary post of national chair in July 1991, and Nelson Mandela resumed the ANC presidency.

Tambo first met Mandela while a student at Fort Hare University, from which he was expelled for organizing a student protest. He joined the ANC in 1944 and, with Mandela, helped to found the ANC Youth League, becoming its vice president; together they also established a law practice in Johannesburg in 1952.

A devout Christian, Tambo applied to join the priesthood, but before he could be accepted as a candidate, received a year's imprisonment for subversive activities in 1956. When the ANC was banned in 1960, as ANC deputy president, he was advised to go into exile and left South Africa to set up an external wing. Before long the organization's main leaders had been imprisoned or killed, and Tambo worked tirelessly from his London base as acting ANC president, becoming president in 1977. His return to South Africa in December 1990 was rapturously received.