JOHN TENGO JABAVU

John Tengo Jabavu (January 11, 1859-Sep-tember 10, 1921), an Xhosa educationist, was the long time editor of Imvo Zabantsundu, the leading African newspaper cf his time. A leading member of the African educated elite, he was a champion of African causes and a supporter of early African nationalist movements.

PHOTO CAPTION: John Tengo Jabavu SOURCE:EA Library

Born at Healdtown in the Eastern Cape, he was the eldest son of five children of Ntwanambi and Mary Jabavu. His parents were Mfengu (a Nguni group who had sought refuge with the Xhosa, later forming a buffer group between the Xhosa and the white colonists), and were Christians.

His father earned a living as a mason. He received his initial education at two leading African schools, Healdtown Missionary Institution and Lovedale. After earning a teacher’s certificate, he began teaching at Somerset East in 1875. There he also acquired experience as a printer’s apprentice.

In 1881, the principal of Lovedale, Dr. James Stewart, asked him to become editor of the religious newspaper, Isigidimi Sama Xosa (“Xhosa Messenger”). During this period he also began contributing articles on politics to the Cape Argus. Partly because he could not comment on politics in his own newspaper, he resigned as editor in 1883 and tried his hand at farming in the Peddie district. After a number of years of private study, he also became the second African to matriculate at Lovedale.

In 1884, he involved himself in the election for the Cape Parliament. (Until 1936, Africans in the Cape who met property and salary qualifications, could vote for whites running for parliament, and in certain districts, their votes could sway elections.) Thus, in 1884, he supported the candidacy of James Rose-Innes for the King Williamstown seat.

After the election, James’ brother, Richard, a lawyer, and a local businessman named J. W. Weir, raised the finances so that Jabavu could start his own independent newspaper, Imvo Zabantsundu (“African Opinion”), which he edited for the rest of his life. He used Imvo to back a variety of African causes, such as opposing pass laws and the Glen Grey Act and championing the spread of African education. From 1908 to 1916 he spearheaded a campaign to establish an institution for African higher education. This goal was achieved in 1916 with the opening of Fort Hare College.

He also attempted to organise African voters in support of a group of independent white liberals in the Cape Parliament. He became so closely identified with them that, on occasions, he approved their stands on issues that worked against African interests.

In his later years he involved himself with the movement of South African blacks to assert themselves politically on a countrywide basis. In 1909 he went to London as part of a delegation that unsuccessfully protested clauses in the proposed South African Union constitution that excluded blacks from Parliament. In 1911 he returned to London to attend the Universal Races Congress.

Jabavu never achieved a position of national leadership in African circles, and his actions frequently ran counter to those of political rivals. In 1912 he did not participate in the founding of the South African National Congress and instead founded his own group, the South African Races Congress.

In 1913 he supported the enactment of the Natives Land Act because it was sponsored by a white liberal friend, J.W. Sauer. And, in 1914, he contested the Tembu land constituency for the Cape Provincial Council against Dr. Walter B. Rubusana, the only African ever to serve on the council. His candidacy siphoned off African votes from Rubusana, allowing a white to win the seat.

Jabavu was married twice. He and his first wife, Elda Sakuba, had four sons, including the prominent educator, D.D.T. Jabavu who, with his brother Alexander was to succeed to the editorship of Imvo. Elda died in 1900. He remarried the following year to Gertrude Johinga, and they had three daughters.

ROBERT EDGAR