While Can Themba and his fellow literary enthusiast Dennis Brutus chose writing as their vocation, many of his fellow students were destined to play equally impactful roles in the political arena.
Brutus acknowledged the ‘social, political and intellectual’ exposure he gained at Fort Hare as having shaped his world view.
In Beda Hall, it was policy since its inception in 1920 to ‘mix the students of the various races – Bantu from various parts, Indian, and coloured’.
He goes on to explain that ‘when a permanent hostel was opened in 1935, Beda Hall introduced the rule that, in those dormitories which accommodate five students, no more than two in any dormitory should be non-Bantu’.
This was meant to encourage students to interact with cultures other than their own. (Brutus was classified as coloured, while Themba was considered Bantu).
One of Themba’s housemates at Beda Hall, Ntsu Mokhehle from Basutoland, took the political route and went on to hold the position of prime minister of Lesotho between 1993 and 1998.
Other notable contemporaries during Themba’s student days included Mangosuthu Buthelezi, an ANC Youth League activist who later became leader of the KwaZulu homeland, founder of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and cabinet minister in a democratic SA; Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, former ANC Youth League activist and founding president of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC); Duma Nokwe, former secretary-general of the ANC; Joe Matthews, ANC Youth League activist, who later joined the rival IFP and Robert Gabriel Mugabe, who fought for independence for Rhodesia and eventually became president of Zimbabwe.
In the 1940s, Fort Hare was fast becoming a hub for political ferment in SA.
As the institution was establishing itself as a breeding ground for young intellectuals, who were naturally at the coalface of unfolding political unrest, the ANC targeted it as an incubator for future leaders, as the youth are traditionally frontrunners of unfolding political dramas in society.
Sobukwe was a student from Graaff-Reinet whose star was fast rising and who was destined to make a mark in the political arena.
Parallels can be drawn between Themba’s and Sobukwe’s career choices and the paths they would tread after university.
While Themba made his mark in student journals such as SANC and The Fort Harian, Sobukwe was a regular contributor to Beware, a pamphlet that offered a platform for daily commentary on political issues.
‘Hand-written, the topic of choice of these daily manifestos was non-collaboration, with fierce attacks on such advisory bodies as the Natives’ Representative Council (NRC),’ writes Daniel Massey in Under Protest: The Rise of Student Resistance at the University of Fort Hare.
In 1948, the year of Themba’s graduation, the National Party came to power and apartheid, with racial segregation and discrimination as a formal means of control, was established as official government policy.
Themba was about to move to Sophiatown, a crucible of South African opposition politics at the time, where the likes of Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela lived. Mandela and Tambo had studied at Fort Hare before Themba.
The man at the forefront of youth activism in the ANC was AP Mda, who was determined to ensure that the university boasted one of the most politically vibrant campuses in the country.
Mda wrote a letter to Pitje suggesting that Fort Hare was fertile ground for future leaders of the national liberation struggle and the best place to start an ANC Youth League branch.
This was a vital step in the politicisation of the student movement and it also planted seeds for grooming future political leaders.
Buthelezi attributed a fundamental part of his own political consciousness to this epoch during his time as a student at this university.
At the time, Buthelezi, like his fellow IFP party man Joe Matthews, as well as Sobukwe, was a member of the ANC Youth League.
Buthelezi feels that in the highly politicised environment on campus, it was inevitable that one would be political: “It was inevitable, of course, that political issues would be talked about at that time as well, because at Fort Hare I was a member of the ANC Youth League, and therefore my interest in politics … was ignited.
“One of our lecturers, Adv Godfrey Pitje, was our chairman [of the ANC Youth League at Fort Hare]; [after] he left, Mr Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe [became] our chairman too.”
Given the nature of political dynamism that was prevalent at Fort Hare, the products of the university were driven by equally diverse schools of thought.
There were communists like Govan Mbeki, nationalists like Tambo and Mandela, Pan Africanists like Sobukwe and traditionalists like Kaiser Matanzima and Buthelezi, all of whom cut their teeth on student politics.
Furthermore, there were clandestine associations of secret agents within the student community. In his Drum article ‘Special Branch Tries to Keep the Lid on Political Change’, which he co-authored with Todd Matshikiza, Themba wrote: ‘Fort Hare has for a long time been under guard’.
There has always been a student whose presence and practice have been suspect. In times of student crises these spies get sorely embarrassed.
Their behaviour is the first to be scrutinised by the students; they are the first to be blamed for any action taken by the college authorities against the students.
In short, Fort Hare was a microcosm of a dynamic and complex political world.
Themba navigated his way through this tumultuous period, which marked both increasing viciousness and rigidity in apartheid legislation, as well as growing and steadfast opposition to the new regime. Buthelezi remembers him as a popular student: “We tended to crowd around him, he almost had a following because...we used to enjoy…his witticisms and his wonderful sense of humour. He was a very brilliant person.”
In the midst of political ferment in the rest of SA and the growth of the student resistance movement on campus, Themba was determined to flex his literary muscles.
It was during this time that he published his first stories and poems in several magazines.
As a budding writer, Themba published poetry, mostly in student journals such as SANC and The Fort Harian, as well as in Zonk magazine, from 1945 to 1951.
The work that he published during these early years is not available in the public domain, so it remains little known.
This is an edited extract from Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of an Intellectual Tsotsi (A Biography) by Siphiwo Mahala
BOOK EXTRACT | How Fort Hare birthed Can Themba's literary genius
The Suit writer mixed with future leaders like Buthelezi
Image: Masi Losi
While Can Themba and his fellow literary enthusiast Dennis Brutus chose writing as their vocation, many of his fellow students were destined to play equally impactful roles in the political arena.
Brutus acknowledged the ‘social, political and intellectual’ exposure he gained at Fort Hare as having shaped his world view.
In Beda Hall, it was policy since its inception in 1920 to ‘mix the students of the various races – Bantu from various parts, Indian, and coloured’.
He goes on to explain that ‘when a permanent hostel was opened in 1935, Beda Hall introduced the rule that, in those dormitories which accommodate five students, no more than two in any dormitory should be non-Bantu’.
This was meant to encourage students to interact with cultures other than their own. (Brutus was classified as coloured, while Themba was considered Bantu).
One of Themba’s housemates at Beda Hall, Ntsu Mokhehle from Basutoland, took the political route and went on to hold the position of prime minister of Lesotho between 1993 and 1998.
Other notable contemporaries during Themba’s student days included Mangosuthu Buthelezi, an ANC Youth League activist who later became leader of the KwaZulu homeland, founder of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and cabinet minister in a democratic SA; Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, former ANC Youth League activist and founding president of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC); Duma Nokwe, former secretary-general of the ANC; Joe Matthews, ANC Youth League activist, who later joined the rival IFP and Robert Gabriel Mugabe, who fought for independence for Rhodesia and eventually became president of Zimbabwe.
In the 1940s, Fort Hare was fast becoming a hub for political ferment in SA.
As the institution was establishing itself as a breeding ground for young intellectuals, who were naturally at the coalface of unfolding political unrest, the ANC targeted it as an incubator for future leaders, as the youth are traditionally frontrunners of unfolding political dramas in society.
Sobukwe was a student from Graaff-Reinet whose star was fast rising and who was destined to make a mark in the political arena.
Parallels can be drawn between Themba’s and Sobukwe’s career choices and the paths they would tread after university.
While Themba made his mark in student journals such as SANC and The Fort Harian, Sobukwe was a regular contributor to Beware, a pamphlet that offered a platform for daily commentary on political issues.
‘Hand-written, the topic of choice of these daily manifestos was non-collaboration, with fierce attacks on such advisory bodies as the Natives’ Representative Council (NRC),’ writes Daniel Massey in Under Protest: The Rise of Student Resistance at the University of Fort Hare.
In 1948, the year of Themba’s graduation, the National Party came to power and apartheid, with racial segregation and discrimination as a formal means of control, was established as official government policy.
Themba was about to move to Sophiatown, a crucible of South African opposition politics at the time, where the likes of Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela lived. Mandela and Tambo had studied at Fort Hare before Themba.
The man at the forefront of youth activism in the ANC was AP Mda, who was determined to ensure that the university boasted one of the most politically vibrant campuses in the country.
Mda wrote a letter to Pitje suggesting that Fort Hare was fertile ground for future leaders of the national liberation struggle and the best place to start an ANC Youth League branch.
This was a vital step in the politicisation of the student movement and it also planted seeds for grooming future political leaders.
Buthelezi attributed a fundamental part of his own political consciousness to this epoch during his time as a student at this university.
At the time, Buthelezi, like his fellow IFP party man Joe Matthews, as well as Sobukwe, was a member of the ANC Youth League.
Buthelezi feels that in the highly politicised environment on campus, it was inevitable that one would be political: “It was inevitable, of course, that political issues would be talked about at that time as well, because at Fort Hare I was a member of the ANC Youth League, and therefore my interest in politics … was ignited.
“One of our lecturers, Adv Godfrey Pitje, was our chairman [of the ANC Youth League at Fort Hare]; [after] he left, Mr Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe [became] our chairman too.”
Given the nature of political dynamism that was prevalent at Fort Hare, the products of the university were driven by equally diverse schools of thought.
There were communists like Govan Mbeki, nationalists like Tambo and Mandela, Pan Africanists like Sobukwe and traditionalists like Kaiser Matanzima and Buthelezi, all of whom cut their teeth on student politics.
Furthermore, there were clandestine associations of secret agents within the student community. In his Drum article ‘Special Branch Tries to Keep the Lid on Political Change’, which he co-authored with Todd Matshikiza, Themba wrote: ‘Fort Hare has for a long time been under guard’.
There has always been a student whose presence and practice have been suspect. In times of student crises these spies get sorely embarrassed.
Their behaviour is the first to be scrutinised by the students; they are the first to be blamed for any action taken by the college authorities against the students.
In short, Fort Hare was a microcosm of a dynamic and complex political world.
Themba navigated his way through this tumultuous period, which marked both increasing viciousness and rigidity in apartheid legislation, as well as growing and steadfast opposition to the new regime. Buthelezi remembers him as a popular student: “We tended to crowd around him, he almost had a following because...we used to enjoy…his witticisms and his wonderful sense of humour. He was a very brilliant person.”
In the midst of political ferment in the rest of SA and the growth of the student resistance movement on campus, Themba was determined to flex his literary muscles.
It was during this time that he published his first stories and poems in several magazines.
As a budding writer, Themba published poetry, mostly in student journals such as SANC and The Fort Harian, as well as in Zonk magazine, from 1945 to 1951.
The work that he published during these early years is not available in the public domain, so it remains little known.
This is an edited extract from Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of an Intellectual Tsotsi (A Biography) by Siphiwo Mahala
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