Clements Kadalie (ca. 1896-1951) was South Africa's first black national trade union leader. He headed the Industrial and Commercial Worker's Union (ICU) from its inception in 1919 until his resignation as national secretary in 1929. The meteoric rise of Kadalie and the ICU signalled the emergence of South Africa's black proletariat as a potential challenger to entrenched white domination of the established economic and political order.

Kadalie achieved prominence in the nascent South African black trade union movement with only limited experience as a worker and even less as a resident of South Africa. A grandson of Chiweyu, a paramount chief of the Tonga of Nyasaland, Kadalie was born in or shortly before 1896 near the Bandawe mission station. Educated by Church of Scotland missionaries, Kadalie completed teacher training in 1912. After a short stint of primary school teaching, Kadalie in early 1915 joined the stream of Nyasalanders seeking employment in neighboring southern...