Museum celebrates the life of Charlotte Maxeke
A TEMPORARY exhibition depicting the life of Charlotte Makgomo (née Mannya) Maxeke has opened in the Zululand Historical Museum, open to the public until early January.
Maxeke was born on 7 April 1871 in Ramokgopa outside Polokwane in Limpopo and she died on 16 October 1939 after a lifetime of activism.
Maxeke and her sister Katie joined the African Jubilee Choir in 1891 and toured England for two years, which included a performance for Queen Victoria.
With hopes of pursuing an education, Maxeke went on a second tour to the USA with her church choir in the mid-1990s.
This led to her studying at the Wilberforce University in Cleveland, Ohio, which was controlled by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC).
She became one of South Africa's first black female graduates when she completed a BSc degree, and it was here that she met her husband Marshall Maxeke.
Missionary life
Maxeke was greatly influenced by AMEC and through her connections with the Ethiopian Church, the AMEC was founded in South Africa.
She became the organiser of the Women’s Mite Missionary Society in Johannesburg, establishing a school at Evaton on the Witwatersrand alongside her husband.
They also taught and evangelised elsewhere, including Thembuland in the Transkei under King Sabata Dalindyebo.
It was here that Maxeke participated in the king’s court, a privilege unheard of for a woman.
They finally settled in Johannesburg, where they became involved in political movements.
Political activist
She and her husband attended the launch of the South African Native National Congress
(SANNC) in Bloemfontein in 1912.
In Umteteli wa Bantu, she addressed the 'woman question' as an early opponent of passes for black women.
She helped organise the antipass movement in Bloemfontein in 1913 and founded the Bantu Women’s League of the SANNC in 1918. As leader of SANNC, she led a delegation to then prime minister Louis Botha to discuss the issue of passes for women.
She was also involved in protests on the Witwatersrand about low wages; participated in the formation of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) in 1920; and was involved in multi-racial movements, addressing the Women’s Reform
Club in Pretoria.
The organisation fought for the voting rights of women, joining the Joint Council of Europeans and Bantus; with Maxeke then elected as president of the Women’s Missionary Society.
In 1928, she attended a conference in the USA and became increasingly concerned about the welfare of Africans.
She set up an employment agency for Africans in Johannesburg and was the first black woman to become a parole officer for juvenile delinquents.
Maxeke was honoured as the mother of black freedom in South Africa and had an ANC nursery school named after her in Tanzania - the Charlotte Maxeke Child Care Centre.