Abdurahman, Abdullah, << AHB duhr RAH mahn, ab DUHL uh or ab dool LAH >> (1872-1940), was the main political leader of the Coloured (mixed race) people in South Africa from 1905 until his death on Feb. 20, 1940.
Abdurahman was born in Wellington, in what is now the province of Western Cape, on Dec. 18, 1872. He earned a medical degree in 1893 at Glasgow University in Scotland. In 1904, he became the first Black person to serve on the Cape Town City Council, and in 1914 he became the first Black person to serve on the Cape Provincial Council. In 1905, he became president of the African Political Organization (APO). He held both council seats and the APO presidency until his death. The APO, which was founded in 1902, had a largely Coloured membership. Abdurahman forged links with other organizations, including the African National Congress, to press for the rights of nonwhite people in South Africa. In 1906 and 1910, he was a member of delegations that visited London. The delegations tried unsuccessfully to persuade the British government to improve the rights of nonwhite people in the Union of South Africa, which was then being established.
