John Tengo Jabavu

John Tengo Jabavu (11 January 1859 – 10 September 1921) was a political activist and the editor of South Africa's first newspaper to be written in Xhosa.

John Tengo Jabavu
John Tengo Jabavu (left) and his son Davidson Don Tengo, around 1903
John Tengo Jabavu (left) and his son Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu, around 1903
Born(1859-01-11)11 January 1859
Healdtown, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Died10 September 1921(1921-09-10) (aged 62)
Fort Hare, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Occupation(s)Political activist, editor
Known forFounder of first Xhosa language newspaper in South Africa
Spouse(s)Elda Sakuba, m. 1885–1900 (her death); Gertrude Joninga, m. 1901-
ChildrenDavidson Don Tengo Jabavu, Alexander Macaulay Jabavu, two other sons and three daughters
RelativesNoni Jabavu (granddaughter)

Early life

John Tengo Jabavu was born on 11 January 1859 near Healdtown in the Cape Colony. In 1875 he graduated from the Methodist mission school at Healdtown and became a teacher at Somerset East. While teaching, he began to write articles for some South African newspapers and he apprenticed himself to a printer. In 1881, Jabavu was invited by Reverend James Stewart of the Lovedale Mission School to become the editor of the institution's Xhosa-language journal, Isigidimi samaXhosa ("The Xhosa Messenger").[1]

Career

By the early 1880s Jabavu had become an important political force. His writings tended to focus on the threat of growing Afrikaner nationalism and his demands for equal rights for Cape Colony's Xhosa population. Tengo Jabavu was also known as a proponent of women's rights as well as public education.

In recognition of his political influence, a group of prominent Cape Colony political figures approached Tengo Jabavu in 1883 with a request for him to stand for election to the Cape Parliament. They recommended that he represent one of the constituencies of the Cape where Xhosa voters formed a significant percentage of the electorate, such as Victoria East. However Jabavu declined, citing the possibility that such a move would unite and aggravate reactionary elements in the Cape Parliament and would therefore be counterproductive.[2] Nonetheless, he later lent his powerful support to the more liberal leaders of the Cape's South African Party against the repressive policies of Rhodes's "Progressives"[3]

In 1884, Tengo Jabavu founded his own newspaper, Imvo Zabantsundu ("Black Opinion"); a year later, he married Elda Sakuba, who would die in 1900, leaving four sons. The eldest of these sons, Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu, would become a respected author and activist in his own right; the second eldest, Alexander, succeeded John Tengo Jabavu as editor of Imvo Zabantsundu, following his 1921 death in the home of D. D. T. Jabavu at Fort Hare.[4]

In the 1890s, Tengo Jabavu's movement Imbumba ("The Union") faced a growing rival, the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) led by Walter Rubusana. While it aspired to unity, Jabavu's movement was still perceived as Xhosa-only party, dominated by Xhosas like Jabavu himself. By contrast, Rubusana's movement was perceived as inter-tribal, with Xhosas and other Africans. Rivalry was exacerbated by national tensions, but largely came to an end as some degree of unity was achieved under the larger African National Congress (ANC), intended finally to lay to rest "the aberrations of the Xhosa Nationalist-African Nationalist feud."[5]

John Tengo Jabavu died on 10 September 1921. In 2006 the South African government awarded him the Order of Luthuli.[6] The award recognized his work in journalism and his support of democracy.[7]

References
  1. Peires, J. Jabavu, John Tengo (1859–1921), journalist and politician in South Africa. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 16 Aug. 2021, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-53763.
  2. McCracken 1967.
  3. Cape Argus Weekly, 7 September 1898 & 23 December 1903.
  4. "John Tengo Jabavu". South African History Online. Archived from the original on 12 July 2009.
  5. Plaut 2016, p. 24.
  6. Order of Luthuli The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa, Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  7. John Tengo Jabavu The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa, Retrieved 17 August 2021.

Sources

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