The Man Who Founded the ANC, by Bongani Ngqulunga

The Man Who Founded the ANC, by Bongani Ngqulunga. Penguin Random House South Africa, Penguin Books. Cape Town, South Africa 2017. ISBN 9781770229266 7 ISBN 978-177022-926-6

The Man Who Founded the ANC, by Bongani Ngqulunga, brings the remarkable life of Pixley ka Isaka Seme, an extraordinary South African, back to public consciousness.

Bongani Ngqulunga  

The death of Pixley ka Isaka Seme on Thursday morning, 7 June 1951, at his legal practice in central Johannesburg came as a shock to black people in South Africa and neighbouring territories. Although Seme was close to seventy, his death took everybody by surprise, including his wife, Princess Phikisile, the eldest daughter of Dinuzulu ka Cetshwayo. When her husband died, she and their three children were not in Johannesburg; they had relocated to Mahhashini in the Nongoma district of Natal, where she had built a home not far from the royal homestead of Cyprian ka Solomon, her nephew and the Zulu king at the time. The first she heard of her husband's illness was an urgent message that she should travel to Johannesburg immediately. By the time she arrived Seme was dead; his body was already in a mortuary in Alexandra Township outside Johannesburg. Seme's death followed closely upon that of Sefako Makgatho, just two weeks before, on 23 May 1951. Now, four of the first five African National Congress (ANC) presidents were deceased, John Dube and Josiah Gumede having died in 1946. Only Reverend Zaccheus Mahabane remained, and he would live on until 1971, eventually passing away at the age of ninety. Although Seme had by then abandoned active politics, the news of his death nevertheless evoked a deep sense of loss, resulting in impassioned eulogies in black newspapers. The Bantu World captured the dominant sentiment of the time: "[If] today, Basutos, Zulus, Xhosas, Shangaans, Bechuanas and Vendas know themselves as Africans, and that Africa is the land of their fathers, they owe this to the inspiring foundation of African nationalism laid by Pixley ka Izaka Seme." Ilanga lase Natal echoed this in an editorial: "The passing away of Dr Seme removes from our midst one of the pioneers of African nationalism. Indeed it might be said it brings to a close an important era in the political life of the African people." In a tribute, Jordan K. Ngubane, editor of Inkundla Ya Bantu, went so far as to suggest that Seme would go down in history as "the greatest African of the first fifty years of the twentieth century - if not of the century as a whole". Seme was buried at Newclare Cemetery in Johannesburg on 17 June 1951. The funeral service was held at two venues: the first part took place at the Bantu Men's Social Centre in Eloff Street, while the second was held at St Cyprian's Anglican Church in Anderson Street. Over two thousand people attended, including leading figures in the black community. Dr James Moroka, who was ANC president at the time, spoke at the funeral. Other speakers included Dr A.B. Xuma, a former president of the ANC; Chief Albert Luthuli, president of the ANC in Natal at the time, and soon to be national president; Richard V. Selope Thema, a former general secretary of the ANC and one of its founders; Levi T, Mvabaza, a veteran leader of the ANC and a member of the 1919 SANNC delegation to Great Britain; and Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, the first black professor at the University of Fort Hare, editor of the first black-owned newspaper Imvo Zabantsundu and president of the All-African Convention (AAC). The legal profession was represented by Advocate L.R. Dison. [...]

This is an excerpt from The Man Who Founded the ANC, by Bongani Ngqulunga.

Title: The Man Who Founded the ANC
Subtitle: A Biography of Pixley ka Isaka Seme
Author: Bongani Ngqulunga
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Penguin Books
Cape Town, South Africa 2017
ISBN 9781770229266 7 ISBN 978-177022-926-6
Softcover, 16 x 24 cm, 290 pages, several b/w and colour photographs