REMEMBERED AT LAST
Earlier this week, a forgotten heroine of South Africa was returned to her rightful place in the national memory. Stephen Coan reports
‘All the pieces of the story are together here’
‘W E COULDN’T have chosen a better person to be inducted to Freedom Park in Women’s Month,” said Jane Mufamadi, Freedom Park chief executive, speaking at a memorial ceremony on Monday introducing Nokutela Dube to the national shrine in Pretoria for the heroes and heroines of South Africa.
“Today represents the introduction of Nokutela to the nation.”
Nokutela Dube, née Mdima (1873-1917), was the co-creator of the Ohlange Institute at Inanda outside Durban with her husband John Dube, who founded the newspaper Ilanga lase Natal and was a founding member and first president of the ANC.
Following her death in 1917, Nokutela’s role was forgotten, testimony to Nobel Prize winning writer Doris Lessing’s assertion: “Women often get dropped from memory, and then history.”
Nokutela and John both grew up on the mission station in Inanda run by William and Ida Belle Wilcox of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
In 1882, the young Nokutela wrote an English essay, “My Home – Africa”, which Ida sent to the Rice County Journal in Northfield, Minnesota, her hometown, where it was published as part of a series in which Ida described her experiences as a missionary.
Northfield also happens to be the home of Chérif Keita, who has played a pivotal role in the return of Nokutela to the historical record.
Born in Mali, Keita has spent much of his life in the US and is currently William H Laird Professor of French and the Liberal Arts in the French and Francophone Studies Department of Carleton College, Minnesota.
During his first visit to South Africa in 1999, Keita met John Dube’s grandson, Zenzele Dube, and heard from him of his grandfather’s education in the US. Keita was intrigued by Dube’s American connection and decided to remedy his ignorance.
The remedy proved to be a 17-year journey during which Keita turned documentary filmmaker and produced three films. First came Oberlin-Inanda: The Life and Times of John L. Dube, linking the story of Inanda to Dube’s education in the US at Oberlin College, Ohio. This was followed by Cemetery Stories: A Rebel Missionary in South Africa, the previously untold story of the Wilcoxes under whose wing the 16-year-old Dube went to the US in 1887.
Keita subsequently organised for the Wilcox descendants to visit South Africa in 2007. In 2009, William and Ida Belle Wilcox’s contribution to South Africa was recognised posthumously with the bestowal of the Companions of OR Tambo Award.
With uKukhumbula uNokutela (Remembering Nokutela), broadcast earlier this year by the SABC, Keita returned Nokutela and her remarkable life to memory.
Speaking at the Freedom Park ceremony, Keita referred to that early essay of Nokutela’s: “Towards the end she writes: ‘people who do not have children are troubled a lot’. I realised she had a premonition of her future; that she would not have children. Indeed, that led to the end of her marriage. It was as though she had left that school essay in my hometown for me to see and wanted me come and look for her.”
Nokutela married John in 1894, after his return from the US, and in 1896, the couple travelled to the US for further education, subsequently making several visits to raise funds to realise their joint vision of an independent school for Africans.
Nokutela was the driving force behind the musical culture of Ohlange, and during these tours, she became the first black South African woman to use music to speak about her people, including the singing of click songs.
The Los Angeles Times of February 13, 1898 included Nokutela in its feature series “Women of note”.
Nokutela and John constituted a formidable partnership but the lack of children proved an Achilles heel in a traditional culture that placed huge value on female fertility.
In 1914, Dube had a child by a pupil at Ohlange. The child died shortly afterwards. The distressed Nokutela left Inanda and went to live near Wakkerstroom, where she continued her educational work.
“They belonged to a generation that had feet in two worlds,” said Keita.
“They were Christians, but also Zulus with a traditional culture. They had been married for 20 years and remained childless. Imagine how African society of the time looked at them.”
Following the break-up, John spent time in Joburg, where the Dubes owned a house in Sophiatown.
When he heard that Nokutela was suffering from a kidney infection, he arranged for her to be brought there for medical attention. It was too late. She died on January 26, 1917 and was buried in the Brixton cemetery, her grave recorded in the burial register as “CK9763”. CK standing for “Christian K****r”.
Three years later, Dube married Angelina Khumalo.They had six children, four surviving to adulthood. Dube died in 1946.
The site of Nokutela’s grave was left unmarked; its location forgotten.
Thanks to Keita’s efforts, not only was her grave found and marked with a fitting gravestone, she was also returned to national memory, in the process bringing together three families: the Dubes, the Mdimas and the Wilcoxes.
It was at that graveside in Brixton last Sunday that members of these families gathered to perform an interfaith cere- mony to bring Nokutela’s spirit to Freedom Park.
“A week before, I went to the tombstone to connect with her and to begin to release her for her journey to join the heroes of Freedom Park,” said Peteni Mdima, a sangoma and member of the Mdima family. “I talked to her and helped to guard her spirit so it wouldn’t go astray on the journey.
“When we drove to Pretoria, I was talking to her all the way, telling her we were bringing her to a certain place. The most important part was drawing her out of the car so she wasn’t confused. I told her that ‘great spirits are already here’.”
On Monday, during another interfaith ceremony, Nokutela’s spirit was welcomed “to sit and become comfortable” amid the boulders and perpetual steam of the Isivivane at Freedom Park, described as “South Africa’s sacred spiritual space and a resting place for those who played a part in the country’s freedom and liberation”.
“Nokutela was the epitome of resilience, hope and black consciousness for many women,” said Reverend Thulani Ndlazi, synod secretary of the United Congregational Church of South Africa, which the American Missions helped to form in 1967.
“Nokutela is part of that lineage that includes John Dube and Albert Luthuli, people committed to making a difference.”
Members of the Mdima, Dube and Wilcox families joined hands in a circle around the Isivivane.
“We have been handed a baton we need to hold high,” said Joyce Siwani, a great-grandniece of Nokutela.
“We learnt of our ancestry and connection to the Dubes through Chérif,” said Deborah Wilcox-Altermatt who, with her sister Carol Wilcox-Giddings, both great-granddaughters of William and Ida Belle Wilcox, had travelled from the US.
“We will let our compatriots know what our ancestors did here and celebrate the connection they had together with your families. We are all one through our ancestors.”
Lange Dube, a grandson of John, said simply: “Today has been a genuine spiritual fulfilment.”
The same could be said for Keita. “All these years, I have been conscious of being led. Today is the culmination of the journey. People have come from Alaska and Seattle, from all over South Africa. All the pieces of the story are together here today.”