Early Life:
He was a teacher, politician, businessman and journalist, sometimes incorrectly referred to as 'James'. Gumede received his training at the Natives' College in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. After having been a teacher in Somerset East for several years, he moved to Natal where he continued to teach until he resigned in order to become an advisor to chiefs in Natal and the Orange River Colony (Orange Free State). He was a good singer and pianist and was a member of a Zulu choir that toured Europe. After his return he became an estate agent and was employed at a legal practice in Pietermaritzburg. He owned land and was also a tradesman for some time. In 1906, on behalf of the Basuto chiefs of the Kholokoe (Kxolokwe or Ruluku) tribe in the Orange River Colony, he laid claims to territory in that colony. He led a delegation of the tribe to Britain in order to bargain for compensation.
Career:
With John Dube and others Gumede was a founder member of the Natal Natives' Congress in 1900. For some time he served as its secretary and vice-president. He was a witness before the South African Native Affairs Commission. This commission was appointed in 1903 with the objective of formulating a policy on African Affairs. It was presided over by Sir Godfrey Lagden and toured the country taking evidence from interested parties. The final report was published in 1905 and clearly indicated that increasing segregation was planned.
In 1912 Gumede became a founder member of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC, since 1923 the African National Congress (ANC) and contributed to the drafting of its 1919 constitution. He was also a member of the 1919 SANNC deputation to the Versailles Peace Conference, which was held after World War I (1914-1918), and the British government. The deputation, however, failed to ensure a better dispensation for South African blacks.
During the 1920s there was sporadic discord in the Natal Natives' Congress. This was the result of estrangement between Dube and Gumede because Dube attempted to keep the congress as independent as possible from the national ANC whereas Gumede founded the separate Natal African Congress, which officially affiliated with the ANC. In 1921 Gumede was appointed as full-time general organizer of the SANNC with the task to tour country in search of financial support.
Following the failure of the deputation to the British government in 1919, Africans had to concede in 1923 to the Natives (Urban Areas) Act, which further curtailed them in the possession of land. From 1924 Gumede openly lamented the increase in segregatory measures. The Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA, South African Communist Party (SACP) after 1953) increasingly shifted their attention to Gumede-and therefore to the ANC-after the communists had been expelled from the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union. Besides his pro-communist inclination Gumede's support of the Afro-American leader, Marcus Garvey-who advocated racial separation and the emigration of Afro-Americans to Africa-was apparent in his speeches. It was probably under Gumede's influence that a resolution to request the United States of America to release Garvey who was imprisoned on charges of fraud, was passed during the July 1927 conference of the ANC. In 1927 Gumede accompanied James la Guma of the CPSA to the first international conference of the League Against Imperialism in Brussels, Belgium. From there he visited the Soviet Union (USSR). Upon his return he praised the USSR as a country where racism was unknown. Contrary to his previous anti-Bolshevist stance he now pronounced that the white communists in South Africa were the only group who fully supported the blacks in their struggle for equal rights. The ANC national executive and the Convention of Bantu Chiefs held under the auspices of the ANC in April 1927 received these pro-communist pronouncements on his overseas travels without enthusiasm. Gumede, however, succeeded in having a proposal, which condemned the ties between the CPSA and the ANC, withdrawn.Despite ANC criticism of the pro-communist tendencies that often surfaced in Gumede's public rhetoric at that stage, he was elected as president-general of the ANC during its annual congress in July 1927, succeeding Z. R. Mahabane. Subsequently Gumede went abroad again and visited, amongst others, the USSR where he attended the tenth anniversary of the communist revolution of 1917. In 1929 he was elected as chairperson of the South African branch of the League Against Imperialism when it was founded by the CPSA. At the end of that year, when the CPSA launched the League of African Rights, he also became its president.
Gumede's three-year term as president-general of theANC was characterised by dispute and dissension-although it did introduce new strains of radical thought into the ANC. It was an unhappy chapter in the history of the organisation. Activities virtually came to a halt. Moreover, antipathy towards Gumede's fraternity with communism and his neglect in circulating information increased sharply. This came to a head when the anti-communist faction of the national executive committee of the ANC took a majority decision to resign en bloc and T. Mapikela took over as acting president-general. At the annual ANC conference in April 1930 Pixley Seme succeeded Gumede as president general. This ended Gumede's role as prominent figure in South African politics. In recognition of his earlier services to the ANC he was, however, appointed as lifelong honorary president of the organisation.
Apart from his political activities he was also involved with journalism. At about the time of the First World War he was editor of Ilanga lase Natal and by the 1930s owner and editor of the ANC mouthpiece Abantu Batho.
Gumede was described as a man seldom angered or harsh in judgement, who accepted criticism as the expression of opinion that people were entitled to. At the same time he was also described as someone lacking independent thought. He sold his store to pay for the debts incurred by the 1919 deputation and the legal cases during the anti-pass campaign of that year.
Later Life:
Gumede was married to Lillian Mgqogqoza. Their son, Archibald Gumede was an ANC defendant in the Treason Trial of 1956, while a daughter, Constance, married A. W. G. Champion.