By Inno Chanza
Clements Kadalie (1896-1951) was South Africa’s first black national trade union leader. He headed the Industrial and Commercial Worker’s Union (ICU) from its inception in 1919 until his resignation as national secretary in 1929.
The meteoric rise of Kadalie and the ICU signalled the emergence of South Africa’s black proletariat as a potential challenger to entrenched white domination of the established economic and political order.
A grandson of Chiweyu, a paramount chief of the Tonga of Nyasaland, Kadalie was born in or shortly before 1896 near the Bandawe mission station.
Educated by Church of Scotland missionaries, Kadalie completed teacher training in 1912.
After a short stint of primary school teaching, Kadalie in early 1915 after the Chilembwe Uprising joined the stream of Nyasalanders seeking employment in neighboring southern African states.
Working for several months in Portuguese Mozambique, as a clerk (his friend Issa Mcdonald Lawrence came to work at the same company after the 1921 stolen whisky issue)…Kadalie continued to Southern Rhodesia, where he held a variety of clerical posts from 1915 to 1918 before moving to Cape Town.
Through a chance encounter with a white socialist Kadalie was drawn into organizing work at a time when trade unions were mushrooming among black workers in many of South Africa’s burgeoning cities. At a meeting of dockworkers in Cape Town in January 1919 he formed ICU.
Kadalie, a resident of less than a year who spoke no South African language other than English, was elected secretary. He also edited the Herald a Capetown paper which he used to send to his friend Issa Lawrence in Mozambique.
Kadalie opened other Trade Unions in Mocambique through Issa Lawrence and in Zimbabwe through Sambo from Rumphi. He later on sent Sambo and Issa Lawrence to to Nyasaland to open Trade Unions.
When Isaa Lawrence was arrested for possessing the Kadalie paper by Nyasaland govt…Kadalie fought hard through his paper to have Lawrence released.
When Kadalie went to England he negotiated with his friends in Labour party to table the Issa Lawrence issue which was discussed in UK parliament in 1926. Caribean Newspapers through Kadalie published the story of Issa Lawrence as a student of Marcus Garvey in Nyasaland prisons.
Issa Lawrence was released in 1927 serving 2 of his 3 year sentence.
Kadalie was later a provincial leader for A N C in South Africa. He organised the biggest strike in Cape town which had him deported.
While Young Hastings Banda was languishing working in mines Kadalie was a prominent editor and leader of trade unions which totalled over 100,000 workers stronger than ANC then in South Africa.
Dr Aggrey of Ghana advised young Kamuzu to emulate Kadalie. He encouraged him to get connected to Kadalie who could help him to further his studies through the methodists who later sent him to America for further studies.
Kadalie came back to Malawi in 1950 and died in 1951 in South Africa leaving behind 5 children.
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