On 8 January 2012, the African National Congress (ANC) inaugurated a yearlong series of programming, celebrating the foundation of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in 1912. The centenary of the ANC – the oldest African political organisation on the continent and indeed one of the oldest parties in the world – represents an historic milestone and cause for celebration in South Africa and beyond. Not only has the ANC survived for one hundred years, it has played a major role in creating a shared sense of unity and purpose that allowed it to develop into a force commanding the support of the majority of people in the country (as well as of one of the largest and most successful international solidarity movements of the twentieth century), which, in turn, brought it to power in 1994. Iconic leaders like Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Albertina and Walter Sisulu have been celebrated around the globe precisely because they came to embody interconnected struggles for racial equality, social justice and human emancipation. Whatever its shortcomings, the negotiated settlement that led to the 1994 democratic elections, and the subsequent Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, created a new model of transitional justice widely praised around the world. Born as the organisation of a tiny, dispersed, and relatively conservative black middle class, the ANC has shown itself to be protean and responsive to changing political and social climates in the intervening one hundred years. Today, the party governs the country with significant popular support and will likely retain power for the foreseeable future.

Yet, is the nationalist movement formed in 1912 the same party that now rules? Yes and no. Part of the ANC's success derives from its capacity to reinvent itself during the course of struggle by drawing on older images, symbols and rhetoric even while it evolves in new directions. The continuity with the founding conference at Bloemfontein is real precisely because the ANC has always sought to make it so: a profound sense of tradition remains central to the organisation's political culture. In other ways, however, the ANC's long history has also been marked by significant discontinuities and ruptures. Internal struggles polarised the party in the 1920s, throughout the 1950s, and leading up to and following the 1969 Morogoro Conference – to name only a few salient moments.