Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews

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ZK Matthews

Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews , or ZK Matthews for short , also Professor ZK (born October 20, 1901 in Kimberley , † May 12, 1968 in Washington, DC ) was a South African university professor, ANC politician and Botswana diplomat . In the African National Congress, Matthews acted as a leader with the ability to balance, who was able to mediate between the older, sometimes belonging to the founding generation, and the young, including militant-oriented members, in the 1940s and 1950s. During this time he was one of the rising intellectual figures on the African continent.

Life

Matthews was born into a mining family in Kimberley. His parents were Peter Motsielwa and Martha Mooketsi Matthews. In his youth he developed an interest in political issues. His cousin was Sol Plaatje and Matthews' father had the right to vote in the Cape Province .

After his junior certificate at Lovedale High School , he began studying at the South African Native College Fort Hare in 1918 , which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in late 1923 after taking the external exams at UNISA . This made him the first black person to graduate from a South African higher education institution. It was also a special event for the College in Fort Hare, because on May 3, 1924, the first graduation ceremony with two graduates, Matthews and Edwin Ncwana ( College Diploma in Arts ), took place at this institution.

In 1925, Matthews took over the function of the Principals at the High School of the Adams College in Amanzimtoti ( Natal ). After private studies, Matthews received a bachelor's degree in law in 1930 , again the first black man in South Africa to receive this degree. He then worked as a lawyer in Johannesburg with a license to practice in the Transvaal Department at the Supreme Court .

In 1933 he enrolled at Yale University , where he earned a master's degree in anthropology the following year , after studying with Charles Templeman Loram, who taught there, questions of native law in relation to western civilization in South Africa. He then turned to England and studied at the London School of Economics with Bronisław Malinowski in the same discipline.

In 1935 he returned to South Africa, where he took part in the founding congress of the All African Convention in Bloemfontein . A year later, Matthews began teaching Social Anthropology and Native Law and Administration at Fort Hare . This professional life turned out to be increasingly successful, so that in 1944 he was appointed head of the department for African studies at this college as the successor to Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu , who was retiring. In this connection he was appointed professor at this institution. In the meantime Matthews was a member of the Native Representative Council (German about: Native Representative Council), which was created in 1936 to develop a native representation controlled by “white” politics. Matthews exercised this mandate from his election in 1940 to 1950 and finally resigned it in protest against the state policies of the apartheid government in South Africa. During this time he dealt with the impact of this body, which he expressed in his 1946 essay Reasons Why the Native Representative Council in the Union of South Africa Adjourned .

As a result of the Atlantic Charter Declaration of 1941, numerous African leaders were called on to comment in 1943. The people who responded met on December 13 and 14, 1943, to form an Atlantic Charter Committee in Bloemfontein. Those in attendance elected Matthews to chair the committee. The two-day conference was led by ANC President Alfred Bitini Xuma .

In 1949 he was elected to succeed James Arthur Calata as President of the Cape Section of the African National Congress. His political profile increased increasingly, which was also supported by his involvement in the preparations for the Defiance Campaign in 1952 . In June 1952 Matthews moved to the United States as he received a visiting professorship at New York's Union Theological Seminary . In the meantime he also stayed in South Africa.

At the annual conference of the ANC Cape Section in Cradock on August 15, 1953, he presented the basic principles for a new political action plan , which he called the Congress of the People . The aim of these programmatic statements was to unite all population groups in South Africa with a "Freedom Charter for a democratic South Africa of the future" on a common basis for action. His initiative for this found its basis in the statements of earlier position papers, such as the African Claims in South Africa (December 16, 1943) and the Program of Action (December 17, 1949, ANC program), which were headed by the then ANC President Alfred Bitini Xuma were created. Together with Albert John Luthuli, Matthews was instrumental in drafting the Freedom Charter along with other personalities. Neither of them could attend the official resolution in 1955 because Matthews was abroad and Luthuli was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act for his political involvement . For the ANC, these programmatic determinations represent important milestones in its history. Matthew's growing national and international reputation prevented the apartheid state from taking rigid repressive measures against him, as they were already being applied to other people.

He returned to South Africa from his university activities in New York to take on the role of principal at the University College of Fort Hare in 1955. In December of the following year, Matthews was arrested and held on charges of treason during the Treason Trial until 1958. When the charges against him were dropped, Matthews was able to return to Fort Hare, where he was installed as Vice Principal . There was another arrest in 1960 under the conditions of the state of emergency, which lasted six months. During this time, the apartheid regime ordered mass arrests, which affected political and intellectual representatives of the black population. The conditions in South Africa led him to move to Geneva in 1962 , where Matthews worked as Secretary of the Africa Department of the World Council of Churches .

In recognition of his academic and political achievements president appointed him Seretse Khama in 1966 after the declaration of independence of Botswana for the first financial institution in his country in the United States and the UN - Ambassador .

Matthews died of a heart attack at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington DC The body was transferred to Botswana and buried in Gaborone .

The former President of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe , described Matthew's life's work in 2008 in his speech at the 5th Central Committee Matthews Memorial Lecture at the University of Fort Hare as inseparable "with the history of this institution and the broad field of education and training" of South Africa.

family

Matthews had been married to Freda Deborah Bokwe, a daughter of John Knox Bokwe , who worked at Inanda Seminary for girls northwest of Durban , since 1928 . The couple had five children. One son, Vincent Joseph Gaobakwe Matthews (* 1929, † 2010), worked in the office of Botswana Prime Minister Seretse Khama and from 1994 to 2004 South African member of parliament.

Memberships

Honors

  • ZK Matthews Great Hall , a concert hall on the main campus of UNISA in Pretoria
  • ZK Matthews Memorial Lecture , commemorative lectures at the University of Fort Hare in Alice (kick-off event on October 12, 2001 with a speech by former President Thabo Mbeki )
  • ZK Matthews Gallery for an exhibition space (No. 2.05) in the Hoerikwaggo building of the Center for Higher Education Development (CHED) at the University of Cape Town
  • Order of Luthuli in gold. Awarded posthumously on June 16, 2004 for "his groundbreaking achievements in education and his lifelong contribution to the struggle for a non-racist , non-existent and democratic South Africa" .

selected Writings

  • Bantu law and western civilization in South Africa: a study in the clash of cultures . Master's thesis , Yale, May 1934
  • The rehabilitation and development of the reserves . South African Outlook , 1945 (75), November, 895, pp. 166-170.
  • An African policy for South Africa . SAIRR 12/30/1948. 7 pages
  • The African response to racial laws . Foreign Affairs , 30, 1, Oct. 1951. 14 pages
  • Apartheid - another view . Journal of International Affairs, 1953 (7), No. 2, pp. 145-150
  • South Africa: a land divided against itself . Yale Review , summer 1953. 13 pages
  • Civil rights for Africans and the Tomlinson Report . (1956). 28 pages
  • African Awakening and the universities . Cape Town [Cape Town], 1961
  • Africa survey report . Geneva [Geneva], World Council of Churches, 1964
  • Responsible government in a revolutionary age . New York, 1966 (published in French in Geneva that same year)
  • Freedom For My People . The Autobiography of ZK Matthews: southern Africa 1901 to 1968. London 1981 (reviewed in 1982 by Alan Paton )

Literature on Matthews

  • Tim J. Juckes: Opposition in South Africa: the leadership of ZK Matthews, Nelson Mandela, and Stephen Biko . Westport (Conn.) 1995.
  • Willem A. Saayman: A man with a shadow. the life and times of professor ZK Matthews; a missiological interpretation in context . Pretoria 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b UNISA Documentation Center for African Studies. The Personal Papers of Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews . compiled by Ammi Ryke, March 2010 (English)
  2. ↑ Alexander Kerr : Fort Hare 1915-48. The Evolution of an African College . C. Hurst & Co. , London 1968, p. 112
  3. ↑ Zacharia Keodirelang Matthews (1901– 1968) ( Memento from August 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
  4. ↑ 1936. Representation of Natives Act No. 12 . on www.nelsonmandela.org (English)
  5. ↑ a b Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews ( Memento from December 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  6. ↑ 'The Failure of the Natives' representative council', Pamphlet by Professor ZK Matthews, published in November 1946. Retrieved December 18, 2018 . (English)
  7. ^ Africans' Claims in South Africa . on www.anc.org.za ( Memento from January 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ MATTHEWS, Zachariah Keodirelang (1901-1968). biographical note on www.aim25.ac.uk; Archives in London and the M25 area (English)
  9. ↑ Interview with Professor ZK Matthews. on www.africanactivist.msu.edu (English)
  10. ↑ Quote by ZK Matthews from his address on August 15, 1953. on www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za, PDF page 2 (English)
  11. ↑ Document on the Treason Trial at www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za (PDF; 7.9 MB)
  12. ^ ANC annual conference presents the African Claims in South Africa . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  13. ^ ANC adopts the Program of Action . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  14. ^ Gottfried Wellmer (editor): Documents of the South African liberation movement . Southern Africa Information Center, Bonn 1977, ISBN 3-921-614-82-5 .
  15. ↑ The Congress of the People, Kliptown 1955. at www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  16. ^ University of Fort Hare. on www.artefacts.co.za (English)
  17. ↑ a b Zacharia Keodirelang Matthews (1901– 1968) ( Memento from December 24, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
  18. ^ State of emergency declared after Sharpeville Massacre . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  19. ^ A State of Emergency. at www.saha.org.za (English)
  20. ↑ UNISA. Kurzbiographie (English)
  21. ^ A b Diplomatic Representation for the Republic of Botswana. on www.state.gov (English)
  22. ^ Academic and ANC politician ZK Matthews dies . (English)
  23. ^ Lecture delivered by the President of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe, on the Occasion of the fifth ZK Matthews Memorial Lecture ("The Role of Higher Education in Advancing the South African State in a Globalized World"), University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape . on www.appablog.wordpress.com (English)
  24. ↑ Bokwe, John Knox. 1855 to 1922. Presbyterian South Africa. Short biography on www.dacb.org ( Memento from May 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  25. ↑ Joe Gaobakwe Matthews. In: THE ROAD TO DEMOCRACY: South Africans telling their stories . at www.sadet.co.za (English; PDF; 277 kB)
  26. ↑ Vincent Joseph Gaobakwe Matthews . Entry on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  27. ↑ Main campus. ZK Matthews Great Hall. at www.unisa.ac.za (English)
  28. ^ Thabo Mbeki: Address by President Thabo Mbeki at the Inaugural ZK Matthews Memorial Lecture . on www.nelsonmandela.org (English)
  29. ^ ZK Matthews Gallery named after icon. on www.uct.ac.za (English)
  30. ↑ UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN. Draft Register of Building Names, Room Names and Names of Spaces. at www.uct.ac.za (PDF document p. 11; 424 kB) (English)
  31. ↑ machine manuscript (English)
  32. ↑ DFG
  33. ↑ VOLUME XLII (1951-1952) ( Memento from August 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
  34. ^ The Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (English)
  35. ^ Alan Paton: ZK Matthews: A Review of Freedom for my People . In: Reality Vol. 14 No. 3 May 1982. on www.disa.ukzn.ac.za
personal data
SURNAME Matthews, Zachariah Keodirelang
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Matthews, Central Committee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African anthropologist and politician (ANC), Botswana diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Kimberley , South Africa
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1968
Place of death Washington, DC , United States