1961: Apartheid attacked at Nobel ceremony

Albert Luthuli, leader of the banned African National Congress, has appealed for racial equality in South Africa after accepting the Nobel peace prize for 1960 in Oslo, Norway.

During a moving speech to distinguished guests - including King Olav of Norway - Mr Luthuli said he considered the award "a recognition of the sacrifices made by the peoples of all races [in South Africa] particularly the African people who have endured and suffered so much for so long".

Mr Luthuli received his prize for advocating non-violent resistance to racial discrimination dressed in traditional Zulu attire with a leopard-skin hat and necklace of lion's teeth.

He described South Africa as a "museum piece" and its policy of apartheid as "a hangover from the dark ages of mankind, a relic of an age which everywhere else is dead or dying".

He said his aim and that of his supporters was to end "such evils as white supremacy and racial discrimination, all of which are a threat to peace".

Posthumous award

The South African authorities stripped him of his chieftainship for refusing to relinquish leadership of the ANC which was banned last year.

His movements are also restricted to a Zulu reservation but he was granted special permission to travel to Norway to accept his prize.

He is also under a suspended sentence for burning his pass, an identity document that must be carried only by non-white South Africans.

At the award ceremony in Oslo University, the chairman of the Nobel peace prize committee, Gunnar Jahn, paid tribute to the 62-year-old African leader in his struggle for human rights.

Mr Jahn said Mr Luthuli, who led the ANC from 1952 until it was banned last year, had done well to reject the use of force in his quest for racial harmony in South Africa.

He also praised Dag Hammarskjold, the late UN Secretary-General, who was today awarded the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize posthumously for his efforts to secure peace in Africa.

He was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia on 18 September this year and today his prize was accepted by Rolf Edberg, Swedish Ambassador to Norway.

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