DON DAVIDSON TENGO JABAVU

Don Davidson Tengo Jabavu (October 20, 1885-August 3. 1959) was the first African to be appointed to a university level education institution in South Africa. In 1916 he joined the staff of the newly opened South African Native College, now the University of Fort Hare, as a lecturer in Bantu studies. During his lifetime he played an increasingly active leadership role in public affairs and came to be known not only as a scholar and educationist, but as a national leader who was accepted by all as a spokesman for all Africans in South Africa.

PHOTO CAPTION: Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu                      SOURCE: sahistory

D.D.T. Jabavu was born in King Williamstown, Cape Colony, in 1885 to one of the most prominent African families of the latter part of the 19th century. His father, John Tengo Jabavu, a Xhosa-speaker, was founder and editor of the first African weekly newspaper, Imvo Zabantsundu. He was also a leading and influential political figure in the days when Africans still had the vote and could influence elections to the Parliament of the Cape Colony and, later, the Parliament of the Union of South Africa.

John Tengo Jabavu was anxious to give his son the best education available. So he tried to get him enrolled in a white high school, but his application was turned down. After fighting this decision unsuccessfully in the courts, he sent his son to Britain to complete his high school education and later to enter London University.

After graduating from London University with a B.A. Honors, young Jabavu spent two more years in graduate studies at Birmingham University before returning to South Africa in 1915. On his appointment to the South African Native College he did not confine himself just to his college duties, but felt impelled to do all he could to improve the lot of the common man.

His first interest was helping the peasant farmers to improve their agricultural methods. He traveled widely in the remote areas of the Cape Province organising small cooperatives in humble African villages, lecturing on ways to improve stock and save the lands from soil erosion. Always a jovial man, he would tell his audience that one Friesland cow was a better buy than ten scrawny African cows, because not only would it produce more milk for improving the health of the children but also would eat less grass and thus save the land from soil erosion.

He not only addressed meetings but prepared pamphlets on farm improvements and wrote articles in the Imvo Za bantsundu which gave advice to farmers on their problems. From these beginnings grew the Cape Farmers Association which he founded and organised in 1919.

Don Jabavu was a great believer in having groups organised and getting them together in unity to help themselves and to present a common front in facing their problems. This was the message he preached to the small separate teachers’ associations which already existed in the Cape Province, as he strove to get them to form one unified teachers’ organisation.

His efforts were at last rewarded when he founded the Cape Native Teachers’ Association in 1920. Encouraged by this success, he went on to tackle the much bigger task of getting the African teachers associations in all the four provinces of South Africa to form a single organisation. This task was accomplished when, in 1921, the “Federal Council of African Teachers Associations” was founded.

During the 1920s and 1930s, D.D.T. Jabavu began to play a larger and larger role in national affairs as a spokesman for the African people and as their representative in various conferences and consultations both at home and overseas. He traveled widely, attending assemblies in Europe, North America, India, and Palestine. On his return from each of these journeys he would undertake lecture tours covering many parts of South Africa speaking about his experiences or, as he would say, “shepherding the African into the 20th century.” On one occasion, returning from a conference in Jerusalem, he brought back a bottle filled with water from the river Jordan just to prove to my brethren that the river Jordan was not in heaven.”

He wrote several books on his travels in the Xhosa language in order to reach as wide an African public as possible; on the other hand, he was not unaware of the wider South African public composed of both black and white as proven by his numerous publications in English on problems facing the African.

During these years Jabavu had become more and more a “bridge-builder;” that is, one who was involved in trying to bridge the gap between black and white. This was a time of growing tension between the two groups, and concerned public spirited men and women were trying to find ways to reduce the tension and create a basic understanding among the different racial groups. Jabavu was among the foremost of these.

In 1926 the Phelps-Stokes Commission from the United States had visited South Africa. Among its prominent members was Dr. J. K. Aggrey, a native of the Gold Coast (now Ghana), and a great advocate of conciliation between white and black. His theme as he lectured throughout South Africa was “if you want to get harmony from a piano you have to play both the black and the white notes; you cannot get harmony from the white notes alone.”

This became the theme song of a new movement in South Africa called the “Joint Councils of Europeans and Natives.” Jabavu was one of the founders of this movement which saw joint councils being created in many parts of the country. The idea behind the councils was to bring men of goodwill from both communities together to discuss divisive issues and to seek out solutions.

The impetus of this movement was, however, greatly reduced when in 1935 the South African government introduced its infamous “Native Bills.” The main thrust of these bills was to abolish the franchise rights of the Cape Africans who had the vote on a common role and to establish a separate role for all Africans who would then vote for an Advisory Representative Council. There were immediate protests from Africans all over the country.

Jabavu, as he then was, took the lead, publishing criticism of the bills and leading deputations to Cape Town to place the views of the Africans before Parliament. The African political congresses, the trade unions, the churches, and other organisations decided to lay aside their differences, join together and form one giant organisation to fight their disenfranchisement. The organisation was called the “All African Convention” and Jabavu was elected its president. His election to this office was the high point of his public life as it underlined his preeminence and acceptance by all as the foremost African leader in South Africa at that time.

In spite of the valiant and courageous efforts of the “Convention” to stem the tide, the bills were passed and became law. Despite the crushing disappointment, Professor Jabavu continued to give of himself unstintingly to the promotion of the welfare of his people and the building of bridges between the races.

After 30 years of devoted service as a teacher of social anthropology and Bantu linguistics at Fort Hare, he retired in 1945. He was a many-sided man: a man of great charm, at home in the company of the educated and the uneducated, an accomplished pianist and choirmaster, a staunch Methodist, a brilliant raconteur who habitually spiced his stories with a wit and humor that made him beloved by all. Thousands traveled many miles to come to his funeral in 1959 in order to pay their respects to the passing of a great man.

DONALD M’TIMKULU