Founded in Johannesburg through a grant from the Queen regent Nabotsibeni of Swaziland. The paper incorporated Moromioa in 1912 and Umlomo wa Bantu in 1913. Under Pixley ka Izaka Seme (later president of ANC). In 1928 it became an official organ of the party. C Kunene was the English and Zulu editor while D.S Letanka was the Sotho editor. The conditions that Africans were living under fueled Seme to act, using Abantu Batho as the conduit for wanting actionable change in South Africa's oppressive conditions. Subsequently, political slogans such as 'Mayibuy' iAfrika' were coined and popularized in this newspaper. By 1921, the newspaper had gained so much traction that the Chamber of Mines established Umteteli Wa Bantu to counter the work and alter the influential currency Abantu Batho had, particularly during the African miners’ strike. Abantu Batho possibly became the most influential of the black protest journals of this era came to a collapse in 1931 owing to the Great Depression that affected not only the cost of living but media printing costs tremendously (Couzens, 1976 : 6).