Elijah Barayi was born on June 15, 1930, in Lingelihle, Eastern Cape. He was the youngest of the 10 children. His father, a municipal worker, and his mother, a domestic worker, encouraged his education, and he completed his matriculation at Healtown Institution in 1949. Unable to continue to pay for his studies at Fort Hare University, Barayi went to work as a clerk in the Department of Native Affairs in Cradock. He joined the ANC Youth League in 1948, at the time when he was about to complete his JC. The impetus for him to join the ANC Youth League was preceded by a racist incident in town when some racist young white boys attacked him and Comrade Zinzele Ngalo, they subsequently fought back and defeated them.
Comrade Barayi became actively involved in the activities of the ANC Youth League, and his leading role in the defiance campaign in 1952 led to a one-month detention in Cradock. In 1952, he joined the ANC and was “taught politics” by the Rev. Calata, a former ANC secretary general.
Barayi recalled in an interview