The early years
He was born at Solusi Mission near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in 1898 — the son of John Bunyan Luthuli, a translator and Seventh-Day Adventist mission worker, and his wife Mtonya. His father died shortly after his birth. In 1908 the family returned to their ancestral home in Groutville, KwaDukuza (Stanger), on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. He began his schooling at a nearby mission school and later studied at the Ohlange Institute, founded by Dr John Dube, the first president of the African National Congress.
His first teaching position
He completed a two-year teacher-training course at a Methodist institution in Edendale near Pietermaritzburg, and accepted his first post running a small school at Blaauwbosch in the Natal Midlands. He trained further at Adams College. On completing his studies he was offered a bursary from Fort Hare University, but turned it down to continue teaching at Adams College and support his family.
In 1927 he married Nokukhanya Bhengu, granddaughter of the Zulu chief Dhlokolo of the Ngcolosi. Between 1929 and 1945 the couple had seven children. In 1928 he was elected secretary of the African Teachers' Association, a position he held until 1933 when he became its president and founded the Zulu Language and Cultural Society as its auxiliary.
Chief of Groutville
He returned to Groutville in 1936 to take up the position of Chief, to which he had been elected by the AbaseMakholweni people. He joined the ANC in 1945 and, the following year, was elected to the Native Representative Council — an advisory body that was later abandoned.
India and America
Luthuli served on the executive of the Christian Council of South Africa and was one of its delegates to an International Missionary Conference held in Madras, India, in 1938. In 1948 he accepted a lecture tour of the United States under the patronage of the American Board and the North American Missionary Conference. He joined the ANC in 1944, was elected to the executive of the Natal branch in 1945, and in 1946 was elected to the short-lived Native Representative Council to replace Dr Dube, who had died of a stroke.
In 1951 his position as president of the ANC Natal branch put him at odds with his government-sanctioned role as chief. His public support for the 1952 Defiance Campaign — a non-violent protest against the repressive Pass Laws — was one such example. He was later deposed as chief and issued a public statement, "The Road to Freedom is via the Cross".
President-General of the ANC
In 1952 Albert Luthuli was elected President-General of the ANC and, together with Nelson Mandela (then provincial president in Transvaal) and nearly 100 others, faced a government banning order.
Banning orders
In 1953 the Government served Luthuli with a one-year banning order, renewed on 11 July 1954. The orders prohibited him from attending public gatherings and confined him to the Stanger (KwaDukuza) magisterial district for two years. Luthuli was served a total of four banning orders during his lifetime.
In 1956, Chief Luthuli — along with 145 other leaders — was arrested on a charge of high treason. He was released in the early stages of the trial. Despite operational difficulties caused by repeated banning and arrests, he was re-elected President-General in 1955 and again in 1958, a position he held until his death in 1967.
On 21 March 1960, after hundreds of peaceful demonstrators were massacred at Sharpeville, Chief Luthuli publicly burnt his pass book and called on South Africans to observe a national day of mourning. He was detained, given a suspended sentence and then released. He was further confined to a smaller area around his home under the Suppression of Communism Act, and banned from receiving visitors, issuing statements or attending church services.
The Nobel Peace Prize
In 1961, for his outstanding efforts to secure political freedom in apartheid South Africa, Chief Luthuli received the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize. Facing mounting pressure at home and abroad, the South African government permitted him to travel to Norway to receive the award.
A year later he was not allowed to travel to the United Kingdom when he was appointed honorary rector of the University of Glasgow in 1962. In the same year his autobiography, Let My People Go, was published. Recognition of his stature as an international icon attracted many luminaries to his home — among them United States Senator Robert Kennedy, who paid him an unofficial visit in 1966.
His death
Chief Luthuli led the ANC until 21 July 1967, when — while out on a walk near his home — he was reportedly struck by a train and killed. At the time of his death he was still under a restriction order. His life, work and philosophy remain an enduring legacy to South Africa and the world.