Charter, noun

Also with small initial. The Charter: Elliptical for The Freedom Charter, see Freedom Charter sense 1.
1964 M. Benson Afr. Patriots 214Throughout that day..delegates listened intently to a Freedom Charter read in English, Sesotho and Xhosa...Lutuli had sent a message: he saw the Charter as ‘a torchlight in whatever dark skies may overcast the path to freedom.’
1981 A. Akhalwaya in Rand Daily Mail 16 June 5The charter..is regarded by many as one of the most significant documents in South African black political history.
1985 Weekly Mail 23 June 13The Charter..was the central document in the famous 1956 Treason trial...The State regarded the Charter as a treasonous document.
1986 P. Maylam Hist. of Afr. People 188To some liberals the Charter looked like a socialist programme; for some Marxists the Charter represented ideals of bourgeois democracy; and for Africanists the Charter made dangerous concessions to multi-racialism.
1990 E. Prov. Herald 9 Feb. 5The mood of the charter should be encapsulated in the slogan ‘The people shall govern’.
Also with small initial. The Charter:Elliptical for The Freedom Charter, see Freedom Charter sense 1.
Derivatives:
Hence Charterism  noun, adherence to the principles of the Freedom Charter.
1990 R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart 133Black Consciousness organizations did not accept white members. All that remained for a white man’s salvation was the broad faith of Charterism.
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Charterism

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