African People's Organisation

{{Short description|Coloured political organization in early 20th century South Africa}}

{{Use South African English|date=August 2014}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}

The African People's Organisation (APO), also known by its original name African Political Organisation was a Coloured political organisation in early-20th-century South Africa.{{cite journal|last1=Adhikari|first1=Mohamed|title='The Product of Civilization in its most Repellant Manifestation': Ambiguities in the Racial Perceptions of the APO (African Political Organization), 1909–23|journal=Journal of African History|date=July 1997|volume=38|issue=2|pages=283–300|doi=10.1017/S0021853796006949 }} Founded in Cape Town in 1902, the organisation rallied South African Coloureds (an ethnic group in South Africa) against the South Africa Act 1909.{{cite web| title=African People's Organization (political party, South Africa)|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/8342/African-Peoples-Organization|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=16 August 2014}}

Trafalgar High School was created as a direct result of criticism of the Cape School Board in the APO newspaper in August 1911. Investigations found that the board had created no benefit at all for students who were non-white. Abdullah Abdurahman lobbied the board and the first school for coloured children was created. The school was led by Abdullah Abdurahman's prodigy, Harold Cressy.[http://trafalgarhigh.co.za/establishment-of-trafalgar-high-school-1912/ History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812213354/http://trafalgarhigh.co.za/establishment-of-trafalgar-high-school-1912/ |date=12 August 2014 }}, school site, retrieved 11 August 2014

The name was changed in 1919, during the economic depression that followed World War I, with the intention of demonstrating the organisation's change of focus to addressing the social and economic needs of Coloured people.{{cite web | title=African People's Organisation (APO) | website=South African History Online | date=1 May 2018 | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/african-peoples-organisation-apo | access-date=31 July 2023}}

The APO also published a newspaper called The APO until its demise in 1923.{{cn|date=July 2023}}