Doubly elite: Exploring the life of John Langalibalele Dube

The first president of the African National Congress, John Langalibalele Du be, is well known as the leading spokesman of his day of Natal's African Ch ristian elite. This article shows that his membership of another elite, tha t of the Qadi chiefdom, is central to an understanding of the role he playe d in the 1920s and 1930s in brokering segregationist alliances between whit e and black interests. The Qadi chief provided critical support to Dube thr oughout his long career; Dube, in turn, brought much prestige to the chiefd om. Moreover, Dube's connections caused deep rifts and raised mane politica l questions over the idea of Christians associating with traditionalists, n ot only on his own mission station at Inanda but throughout colonial Natal. Yet his membership of two elites vas also of a doubly subjugated kind: Afr icans suffered inferior status in the eyes of both the state and the church . He fiercely resented and rejected this. Yet his simultaneous desire for r espectability and acceptance prevented him from breaking free altogether of the order that entrapped him, and produced in him so many of the ambiguiti es that Shula Marks has extensively explored.