By the time Michael Harmel died in 1974 in Prague while serving on the editorial board of the World Marxist Review as a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP), he had contributed enormously to Marxist culture in South Africa. Not only had he written the official history of the SACP, Fifty Fighting Years: The Communist Party of South Africa 1921-1971 (1971), written under the pseudonym of ‘A. Lerumo’, he had also as editor in the 1950s of political reviews such as Liberation and African Communist created a vibrant intellectual forum in which stalwarts like Jacob Nhlapo, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Ruth First, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Walter Sisulu and many others (not all of them by any means Communists) forged a democratic opposition to the state apparatuses of apartheid, segregation, racism, oppression, repression and capitalism. Like Bram Fischer and Ruth First, Michael Harmel was one of the white South Africans through the Communist ideology contributed to the making of African modernity in South Africa. It was in recognition of this contribution that Yusuf Dadoo in a funeral oration at a Prague cemetery on June 24, 1974 said the following among many other things: “We have come together to pay homage to Comrade Michael Harmel , an outstanding South African revolutionary whose whole life was unconditionally and totally dedicated to the struggle of the people and who devoted all his adult years to the cause which was dear to him above all others: the cause of liberation, socialism and internationalism. Comrade Harmel was a man whom nature endowed with considerable talents as a thinker, writer and publicist. He used these gifts unselfishly to enrich a movement and a struggle towards whose growth and development he made a lasting contribution. . . . The most lasting monument to Comrade Harmel’s role as a Party writer and publicist is the African Communist which he helped to launch in 1959 and which he edited continuously until a year before his death when he was appointed the Central Committee’s representative on World Marxist Review in Prague. Under his editorship the African Communist established itself as an internationally recognised organ of Marxist-Leninist thought in Africa. Its pages contain a rich storehouse of Marxist analysis of problems relating to the African revolution in general and the South African revolution in particular. Comrade Harmel was a familiar figure at international gatherings of world communist movement where, representing our Party, he worked tirelessly for the implementation of our policy on the unity of the international communist movement as a fundamental element in the struggle against reaction, imperialism, colonialism, racialism and social injustice” (“Tribute to Michael Harmel”, African Communist, no. 59, fourth quarter 1974). This appraisal was based on a theoretical and historical understanding of the writings of Michael Harmel as evident in the Foreword Yusuf Dadoo wrote to the New Delhi edition of his book: “We, South African communists and progressives, are very pleased that the Peope’s Publishing House has considered it of sufficient importance to come out with an Indian edition of Comrade Lerumo’s book---Fifty Fighting Years: History of the Communist Party of South Africa---so as to place within reach of the wide reading public of the Indian subcontinent the story of the Communist Party of South Africa and its vanguard role in the bitter struggles of the oppressed South African working peoples against imperialism and racial oppression. The book, I have no doubt, will be read with deep interest in India since the history and destiny of our two countries is closely interwoven. Both have for long been the victims of British imperialism, the consequences of which still have disastrous impact on our lives. . . . This volume deals with the formation of the Communist Party of South Africa in 1921, inspired by the great October revolution and the heroic deeds of the bolsheviks under the leadership of Lenin, and its subsequent development as a leading force of the working peoples in the bitter struggles against the restrictive racial laws which had deprived the African people of their land and turned them into a reservoir of cheap labour for the mines and the white man’s farms; it deals with the innner-party struggle against the dogmatic, sectarian tendency in the twenties and early thirties which threatened the isolation of the Party from the masses of the people; and, it also deals with the work and activities of the South African Communist Party under conditions of illegality enforced by the fascist National regime. In doing so, it also traces the parallel development of the national liberation movement, centred in the African National Congress, in which the South African Indian Congress played a notable and honourable part. It is clear too that the SACP itself was a vanguard pace-setter in the building of this united front of liberation” (People’s Publishing House, New Delhi, 1972). Concluding his reflections, Dr. Yusuf Dadoo saw the interrelationship between South Africa and India (between the progressive forces of both countries) as exemplified in his personal interaction with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Six years later, in a Postcript to the 1978 People’s Publishing House new edition, Yusuf Dadoo added in part: “We wish to pay tribute to the people of India for their long and sustained support of our struggle which began from the time of Mahatma Gandhi. Independent India can be justifiably proud that it was one of the first countries in the world to boycott racist South Africa economically and politically. The People’s Publishing House is to be warmly congratulated on taking the initiative to publish an Indian edition of Fifty Fighting Years. We have no doubt that its publication will lead to even greater understanding in India of the character and nature of our struggle in South Africa and to a further deepening of material and moral support” (1978). If with his book Fifty Fighting Years, Michael Harmel fostered a particular form of internationalism, his intellectual guidance of Liberation as editor in 1950s made possible the political and intellectual unity of many progressive forces in South Africa cutting across racial and class barriers as symbolized by the Congress of the People. Michael Harmel opened the pages of Liberation to interrogate and reflect on some of the critical questions and issues that were central in the making of New African modernity in South Africa: Govan Mbeki wrote a major essay examining the question of land and the role of the peasantry in the context of the modern industrialization of the country (“The Transkei Tragedy: A Study in the Bantu Authorities Act”, no. 21, September; no. 22, November 1956; no. 23, February; no. 24, April 1957); among the many contributions to the review, Nelson Mandela also broached the issue of the peasant class (“Transkei Re-visited”, no. 16, February 1956); a debate on the nature of the African languages ensued between Jacob M. Nhlapo (“The Problem of Many Tongues”, no. 4, August 1953) and Peter N. Raboroko (“The Linguistic Revolution”, no. 5, September 1953); A. M. Kathrada theorized the political issue of cultural boycott (“Towards A Cultural Boycott of South Africa”, no. 20, August 1956); Ezekiel Mphahlele considered the significance and impact of modern European literature on the making of modern African literature (“Thoughts on literature among Africans”, no. 12, September 1955). These and many other contributions by New African intellectuals in Liberation make one question the historical legitimacy of naming the 1950s the ‘Drum Decade’. Within such a context and within such an appraisal, the contribution of Michael Harmel to South African intellectual culture has been immense.By the time Michael Harmel died in 1974 in Prague while serving on the editorial board of the World Marxist Review as a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP), he had contributed enormously to Marxist culture in South Africa. Not only had he written the official history of the SACP, Fifty Fighting Years: The Communist Party of South Africa 1921-1971 (1971), written under the pseudonym of ‘A. Lerumo’, he had also as editor in the 1950s of political reviews such as Liberation and African Communist created a vibrant intellectual forum in which stalwarts like Jacob Nhlapo, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Ruth First, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Walter Sisulu and many others (not all of them by any means Communists) forged a democratic opposition to the state apparatuses of apartheid, segregation, racism, oppression, repression and capitalism. Like Bram Fischer and Ruth First, Michael Harmel was one of the white South Africans through the Communist ideology contributed to the making of African modernity in South Africa. It was in recognition of this contribution that Yusuf Dadoo in a funeral oration at a Prague cemetery on June 24, 1974 said the following among many other things: “We have come together to pay homage to Comrade Michael Harmel , an outstanding South African revolutionary whose whole life was unconditionally and totally dedicated to the struggle of the people and who devoted all his adult years to the cause which was dear to him above all others: the cause of liberation, socialism and internationalism. Comrade Harmel was a man whom nature endowed with considerable talents as a thinker, writer and publicist. He used these gifts unselfishly to enrich a movement and a struggle towards whose growth and development he made a lasting contribution. . . . The most lasting monument to Comrade Harmel’s role as a Party writer and publicist is the African Communist which he helped to launch in 1959 and which he edited continuously until a year before his death when he was appointed the Central Committee’s representative on World Marxist Review in Prague. Under his editorship the African Communist established itself as an internationally recognised organ of Marxist-Leninist thought in Africa. Its pages contain a rich storehouse of Marxist analysis of problems relating to the African revolution in general and the South African revolution in particular. Comrade Harmel was a familiar figure at international gatherings of world communist movement where, representing our Party, he worked tirelessly for the implementation of our policy on the unity of the international communist movement as a fundamental element in the struggle against reaction, imperialism, colonialism, racialism and social injustice” (“Tribute to Michael Harmel”, African Communist, no. 59, fourth quarter 1974). This appraisal was based on a theoretical and historical understanding of the writings of Michael Harmel as evident in the Foreword Yusuf Dadoo wrote to the New Delhi edition of his book: “We, South African communists and progressives, are very pleased that the Peope’s Publishing House has considered it of sufficient importance to come out with an Indian edition of Comrade Lerumo’s book---Fifty Fighting Years: History of the Communist Party of South Africa---so as to place within reach of the wide reading public of the Indian subcontinent the story of the Communist Party of South Africa and its vanguard role in the bitter struggles of the oppressed South African working peoples against imperialism and racial oppression. The book, I have no doubt, will be read with deep interest in India since the history and destiny of our two countries is closely interwoven. Both have for long been the victims of British imperialism, the consequences of which still have disastrous impact on our lives. . . . This volume deals with the formation of the Communist Party of South Africa in 1921, inspired by the great October revolution and the heroic deeds of the bolsheviks under the leadership of Lenin, and its subsequent development as a leading force of the working peoples in the bitter struggles against the restrictive racial laws which had deprived the African people of their land and turned them into a reservoir of cheap labour for the mines and the white man’s farms; it deals with the innner-party struggle against the dogmatic, sectarian tendency in the twenties and early thirties which threatened the isolation of the Party from the masses of the people; and, it also deals with the work and activities of the South African Communist Party under conditions of illegality enforced by the fascist National regime. In doing so, it also traces the parallel development of the national liberation movement, centred in the African National Congress, in which the South African Indian Congress played a notable and honourable part. It is clear too that the SACP itself was a vanguard pace-setter in the building of this united front of liberation” (People’s Publishing House, New Delhi, 1972). Concluding his reflections, Dr. Yusuf Dadoo saw the interrelationship between South Africa and India (between the progressive forces of both countries) as exemplified in his personal interaction with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Six years later, in a Postcript to the 1978 People’s Publishing House new edition, Yusuf Dadoo added in part: “We wish to pay tribute to the people of India for their long and sustained support of our struggle which began from the time of Mahatma Gandhi. Independent India can be justifiably proud that it was one of the first countries in the world to boycott racist South Africa economically and politically. The People’s Publishing House is to be warmly congratulated on taking the initiative to publish an Indian edition of Fifty Fighting Years. We have no doubt that its publication will lead to even greater understanding in India of the character and nature of our struggle in South Africa and to a further deepening of material and moral support” (1978). If with his book Fifty Fighting Years, Michael Harmel fostered a particular form of internationalism, his intellectual guidance of Liberation as editor in 1950s made possible the political and intellectual unity of many progressive forces in South Africa cutting across racial and class barriers as symbolized by the Congress of the People. Michael Harmel opened the pages of Liberation to interrogate and reflect on some of the critical questions and issues that were central in the making of New African modernity in South Africa: Govan Mbeki wrote a major essay examining the question of land and the role of the peasantry in the context of the modern industrialization of the country (“The Transkei Tragedy: A Study in the Bantu Authorities Act”, no. 21, September; no. 22, November 1956; no. 23, February; no. 24, April 1957); among the many contributions to the review, Nelson Mandela also broached the issue of the peasant class (“Transkei Re-visited”, no. 16, February 1956); a debate on the nature of the African languages ensued between Jacob M. Nhlapo (“The Problem of Many Tongues”, no. 4, August 1953) and Peter N. Raboroko (“The Linguistic Revolution”, no. 5, September 1953); A. M. Kathrada theorized the political issue of cultural boycott (“Towards A Cultural Boycott of South Africa”, no. 20, August 1956); Ezekiel Mphahlele considered the significance and impact of modern European literature on the making of modern African literature (“Thoughts on literature among Africans”, no. 12, September 1955). These and many other contributions by New African intellectuals in Liberation make one question the historical legitimacy of naming the 1950s the ‘Drum Decade’. Within such a context and within such an appraisal, the contribution of Michael Harmel to South African intellectual culture has been immense.