It may be asked whether there are legitimate historical reasons for considering Mahatma Gandhi as a New African. The twenty years he spent in South Africa from 1893-1913 fighting for the liberation of Indians from white oppression is more than sufficient reason. His having launched the Indian Opinion newspaper in 1903 with V. Madanjith, and his founding the South African Indian Congress, more than entitles him as one of the exponents of New Africanism. In this, the historical situation of Mohandas Gandhi is similar to that of the Ghanian F. Z. S. Peregrino and the African American Max Yergan, both of whom became participants in the making of the New African Movement. This is how Dr. Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo, arguably the greatest Indian political leader and intellectual in the twentieth-century in South Africa, viewed Gandhi as corroborated by a correspondence between them beginning on March 15, 1939 to October 10, 1946. Gandhi's autobiography, Satyagraha in South Africa (1928) clearly delineates his South Africanness. Although Gandhi left South Africa in 1913, approximately a year before his assassination in 1948, he was still very much concerned with the country in which he had spent two decades of his life, as this "Message to South Africa" indicates: "Field Marshal Smuts is a trustee for Western civilization. I still cling to the hope that he will not sustain it on the suppression of Asiatics and Africans. South Africa should present a blend of the three. To the people of South Africa, to whom I am no stranger, I would say that they should no make the position of their representatives impossible by their unwarranted prejudice against colour. The future is surely not with the so-called white races if they keep themselves in purdah. . . To the Satyagrahis I would advise strict adherence to the fundamentals of satyagraha which literally means force of truth and this is for ever invincible. It is a good sign that they have a progressive European group solidly behind them. The Satyagrahis of South Africa should know that they have India at their back in their struggle for preserving the self-respect of the Indians in South Africa" (May 18, 1947; reprinted in Dr Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo: His Speeches, Articles And Correspondences With Mahatma Gandhi [1939-1983]). Given Mahatma Gandhi's life-long preoccupation with South African matters, the tribute by Dr Dadoo on the occasion of his death was very much representative of what practically all South Africans felt: " We in South Africa remember with pride that it was here that the struggles which were later to become his whole life were commenced. It was here in South Africa that his epic struggles for the emancipation of his people were begun. It was here in South Africathat the first inklings of democratic rights were won; and it was to South Africa that he felt his great weapon of Passive Resistance to vindicate our honour and lead us to freedom. Even absorbed as he was in the greater struggle in India, his interest and support for our cause remained unabated. The plight of the Indian people in South Africa was a matter of grave concern to him and he was at all times willing to guide and assist us. . . The greatest homage that we in South Africa can pay to his memory is to further the great Passive Resistance struggle which we have undertaken against injustice and racial discrimination and for the vidication of our self-respect and honour as citizens of South Africa" ("'His Spirit Lives On': Tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, January 1948", Passive Resister, February 6, 1948; reprinted in Dr Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo). There can be no question that Mohandas Karamanchand Gandhi was one of the extraordinary New African intellectuals.