Pixley seme towards a biography of alberta

However, the outcome of the case was disastrous for Seme — he lost the case on appeal at the Privy Council and returned to South Africa. He conceptualised the form and structure of the movement and facilitated the founding of the SANNC in Bloemfontein in At the founding Congress Seme delivered the keynote address, an appeal for symbolic and material support for the new formation.

When voting began for the position of president, Seme proposed that John Langalibalele Dube be elected. Photograph courtesy of the University of the Witwatersrand LibraryAfter some years in active politics he returned to his legal career inonly to make a comeback to active politics in Stephen Pixley, a missionary who had been instrumental in getting him to study in the United States of America.

He changed his name again when he got to Columbia University in by adding 'ka Isaka' son of Isaka. From then on, he became known as Pixley ka Isaka Seme. Pixley started his schooling at the local mission school in Inanda. From then on, he went to study at Adams College, which is in the south of Durban. Adams, named after the missionary Dr. Newton Adamswas also an institution of the American Zulu Mission.

Stephen Pixley, was pixley seme towards a biography of alberta in getting him to study in the United States of America. It was also while at Columbia that he developed a strong political consciousness, which he attributed to the vibrant political and cultural life in New York City generally and the neighbouring communities such as Harlem where he stayed for a while.

Inhis senior year at the university, he was awarded the Curtis Medal, Columbia's highest oratorical honor. Seme applied to pursue his legal studies at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Seme returned to South Africa inand began to pixley seme towards a biography of alberta as a lawyer in Johannesburg. InSeme established the South African Native Farmers Association [ 10 ] to encourage farm workers to buy land in the Daggakraal area, and thus attain personal independence.

This led the white government to enact the Natives Land Act ofbarring "black" people from owning land in South Africa. In response to the formation of the Union of South Africa, Seme worked with several other young African leaders recently returned from university studies in England, Richard MsimangGeorge Montsioa and Alfred Mangenaand with established leaders of the South African Native Convention in Johannesburg to promote the formation of a national organization that would unify various African groups from the separate colonies.

Later, inSeme accompanied King Sobhuza II as part of a delegation to London to meet British authorities and the King regarding the land proclamation in Swaziland. Seme's nationalist organizing among Africans paralleled the contemporaneous efforts of Mohandas Gandhi with South African Indians. While in the United States he had been strongly influenced by the work of Booker T.

Washington at Tuskegee and was desirous of setting up a similar institution in South Africa. Later, inhe also founded and edited the Zulu newspaper, Ilanga Lase Natal. There is a fair amount of information available about John Dube but almost nothing about his younger cousin Pixley Seme. Material is also sparse about his years after the establishment of the African National Congress.

This might be because his conservative influence, after the militant promise he had shown initially, almost spelt the demise of that organisation. By the time he was ousted from office the Congress was all but dead. Recently some important documents connected with his school career in the United States were unearthed by Mrs Linda Batty in the library archives of Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts.

Today this is a prestigious education institution of over pupils. It is situated on two campuses. But the school had humble beginnings. In Dwight L Moody, evangelist and educator of East Northfield, Massachusetts, founded the Mount Hermon School for Boys on the west side of the Connecticut River on high sloping ground which commanded an extensive view of river, valley and mountain.

The site he selected was the Old Purple Farm which he procured after much effort. Once he had done so, he got down on his knees on the vacant site, and beseeched:. O Lord we pray that no teacher may ever come within these walls except they have been taught by the Holy Spirit; that no scholars may ever come here except as the Spirit of God shall touch their hearts.

These words proved prophetic when amongst others it later touched the heart of a quiet, humble, Zulu herdboy who would years after come from faraway Inanda in Natal. A few months after Mount Hermon School was established, Isaac Seme was born on October 1,on the other side of the world, at a rural mission station in South Africa. Seme later claimed to be a nephew of Umqawe, one of the most powerful chiefs of Zululand, but a conflicting opinion seemed to suggest that he came from a humble, Tonga family which for a long time identified itself with the Zulus.

They died while he was still a young boy. Seme had brothers and sisters but there is no certainty about the numbers. Two of his sisters were married to preachers. He initially attended a school at a missionary institution in Natal run by a white American priest attached to the Congregational Board Mission in Natal. Reverend S. Inat the age of fourteen, Seme entered the Amanzimtoti Institution, which had by then changed its name to Adams Training School for Boys.

Here he was under the principalship of Mr. George B. The young boy was given the opportunity of training as a teacher at Adams School, but he desisted. He seemed bent on emulating the achievement of his cousin, John Dube, and continuing his education in the United States. John Dube was at the time in his second year at the theological seminary in Brooklyn.

Isaac Seme, at the age of sixteen, with a bare smattering of English to assist him, travelled second and third class for over 10 miles in until he eventually reached his cousin in Brooklyn. For a few months he remained there to improve his English. Ambert had himself graduated from there in He was now, in addition to running the hotel, the general advisor in all business problems that confronted the school.

The principal was Henry F. Cutler, a B. Reverend Pixley was prepared to find the money for the first year, but since he would be returning to his mission station in South Africa, he could not give any further guarantees. Seme would have to learn to rely on his own efforts by working during the Summer vacations. His case is a very interesting one.

He has worked his way to America and wishes to do all he can towards self-support… Try him for one year. Have faith that his bills will be paid. Professor Cutler was prepared to accept the challenge and permission to enter Mount Hermon was granted. I hope to send him also some clothing and an outfit in a day or two as soon as I can get to some place where I can purchase the necessary articles… Hoping he will prove himself a boy thoroughly in earnest to do good work and in due time if the Lord will be prepared, to return to South Africa to aid in the elevation and Christianization of the Zulus.

Commending him to your Christian watch and care. He must have decided to adopt it as a tribute to his guide and sponsor. He retained it for the rest of his life. There was also uncertainty about his ultimate profession. He gave these variously as photographer, missionary and medical doctor. Only years later at Columbia University did he add lawyer.

His tuition and board were paid up for that year and he had the promise of clothes from Reverend Pixley. Either that missionary or John Dube contacted Mrs Doubleday of New Jersey who in turn wrote to Professor Cutler to have Seme measured up for clothes and the statistics sent to her. As a result the suit was forwarded express to Seme by H.

Jackson, tailors of Rutherford, New Jersey. He was worried because he had not heard from Seme for two months and feared that the boy was ill. He was also concerned about the fees for the next academic year, and suggested to Professor Cutler that Seme should try and procure work for the Summer vacation. John Dube in New York was also actively trying to raise extra money.

He approached Mrs Francis L. Stimson of Brooklyn, who in turn sought assistance from Dr H. Silliman, a trustee of Mount Hermon, who three years later was to donate a science laboratory to the school. She requested that Dr Silliman contact Seme and suggest to the boy that he work for a year in order to raise money. Nothing, however, came of this.

Dr Silliman sent on that letter to Professor Cutler for his consideration. Help indeed came albeit for the following year. Still more help came. It also saw the start of Seme asserting his rights as an individual. His views on racial attitudes seemed to have crystallised from passive acceptance to an aggressive assertiveness. This had nothing to do with his stay at Mount Hermon where he was treated like anyone else.

He did fall foul of Mr. There seemed to have been some dispute about room distributions for the coming year and Seme wrote a strong reply to Mr. Dickerson who was in charge of room allocations. I thought it best for me to send my room allocation now because I will come in late in the afternoon 29th. I will be very well pleased if you will fill my place as best you can in the following order.

Then followed this peculiar request. This latent awareness of his colour situation was to play an increasing role in his later development which would culminate, just over a decade later, in the African National Congress. He spent the vacation working on a farm for Mr. Breinig of the Allentown Manufacturing Company, who had assisted him financially two years before.

A new problem arose, that of finding a university place and money for tuition and board. At his request Professor Cutler applied to Yale University. The application was processed by Alfred K. Merritt who might have had some former connections with Mount Hermon. Once he had gained admission, there would be scholarships available. Seme also applied for admission to Columbia University in New York.

He was deeply disappointed when he was unsuccessful in his bid for a Yale entry. Instead, at the age of twenty-one, he entered Columbia University in September, He still received assistance from diverse quarters. A niece of Reverend Pixley, Mrs. In New York he was now a jaunty, talkative young man full of self-confidence. In the big city he was in his element and the disappointment of Yale faded into oblivion.

This is a very fine College. I am sure I could not have made a better choice. The students as well as professors make it very pleasant for me. The article also stated his intention of qualifying as a medical doctor rather than a lawyer.

Pixley seme towards a biography of alberta

A further paragraph in the same article stated that Seme was embarrassed by the attention he was receiving. Seme might have been more cautious about certain inexactitudes reaching his cousin, John Dube, who was running Ilanga Lase Natal. Nevertheless he was enjoying the publicity and attention he was receiving and taking it all in his stride.

He did not get the position as a valet but instead procured the less romantic and more menial position, at Kent House, Greenwich, Connecticut, of a storeman and a general handyman. By this time he had adopted the more resounding and impressive name of Pixley ka son of Isaka Seme. This was a far cry from working as a bellboy or storeman. In September,he entered Jesus College, Oxford, to read law.

Because of his interest in debate and current affairs he soon joined the Oxford Union. He wrote to Professor Cutler in that that was going to be his last year of undergraduate life in colleges. He cut short his Summer vacation to complete his course as soon as possible, and in June,gained the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law and passed his first bar examinations.

He went down to London and afterwards was called to the bar at Middle Temple. In he finally returned to South Africa. Seme had left as a quiet but ambitious herdboy twelve years before and now returned as a sophisticated, highly qualified professional and a man of the world. While in London inhe had made contact with the W. Schreiner delegation which attempted to plead against discriminatory articles contained in the proposed Act of Union.

Seme met with Reverend W. With them he discussed the possibility of a permanent nation-wide congress of black leaders. When he returned inhis first brief was the defence of an African charged with the assault of a white man. His mind was now concentrating on a congress of black people, and the following year his purpose was realised with the establishment of the South African Native National Congress.

Seme built up a large legal practice and his clients included the Swazi Royal Family. Later he married the daughter of Dinizulu, paramount chief of the Zulus. In his former university, Columbia, conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. The leadership of the African National Congress was held by J. Gumede in He set the organisation on a course of alliance with the Communist Party of South Africa which alarmed the conservative faction in the movement, who rallied around Seme.

In Seme captured the Presidency from Gumede by 39 votes to He had grand designs of making the African National Congress an engine of economic self-help. He also tried to revive the now defunct House of Chiefs with which the Congress had been burdened at its inception. In he was replaced as leader by Z. Mahabane in spite of his packing annual conferences with his own delegates.

Seme retired into the political wilderness and spent the rest of his life concentrating on his lucrative legal practice. In June,he died in Johannesburg. The African National Congress was now under the militant leadership of Chief Albert Luthuli, and was taking a more dynamic direction. The Leaders gathered in Johannesburg for the funeral of Seme and used the occasion for the discussion of a closer political liaison with the South African Indian Congress.

It can thus correctly be said that the old, conservative, passive African National Congress was buried on June 17,in the grave with Pixley kaIsaka Seme. Thomas Coyle ed. The statement that Seme was of Tonga background was made by Jordan Ngubane, writer and politician. See Thomas Karis and Gwendolyn Carter ed. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press,p.

For pixley semes towards a biography of alberta to Dube see p. Library, Northfield Mount Hermon, August, Library, Application to Mount Hermon, August Coyle, Op. Application to Mount Hermon, Op. Pixley to Cutler, August 13, Pixley to Cutler, September 5, Seme to Cutler, August 26, Doubleday to Cutler, February 2, Stimson to Silliman, August 26, Pixley to Cutler, September 18, Smith to Moody, October 24, Breinig to Cutler, December 26, Seme to Cutler, August 30, Seme to Dickerson, August 22, Seme to Cutler, May 14, See also Breinig to Cutler, December 26, Merritt to Cutler, May 31, At the funeral of Mrs.

He could have been a relation. See Harriet Louise Ford Cutler. Beale to Cutler, January 1, Seme to Cutler, January 17, Seme to Cutler, September 5, Applicants will understand that filling out this blank does not imply the acceptance of the candidate. Every application will be considered on its own merits, and its relation to other applications, existing vacancies, and the purpose of the school.

Meritorious cases may be refused because they do not fall in line with the special design of the school or because others have made prior claims. Applicants are requested to answer every question with equal care and candor. Flattering or misleading statements regarding the mental and moral character of a candidate may bring about his admission to the school, but will only act against him when he is here seen and known.

Among the indispensable conditions of admission are a sound mind and a sound body. Feeble minds with no aptitude for study, and feeble bodies with no power of endurance, are excluded, not because they need no help, but because the school is adapted to this class of pupils. Lazy boys are not desired. Every candidate accepted is received upon the understanding that he will prove himself worthy of the advantages offered him or consent to forfeit them.

The parent, guardian, or some responsible person will fill out this blank and return to the Principal of the school. Please send photograph of applicant and also letter of own composition and writing, stating what studies he has pursued, what his purpose in life is, and which of the courses he wishes to take here. Name of candidate Pixley I.

This fall, What class do you hope to enter? Do you apply for the full course? Name and address of parent Louis Stoiben Esq. Y City. Full name of candidate for admission. Pixley I. Seme 2. Inanda, Natal, South Africa. Has good health. Has candidate done anything toward self-support? In what occupation? Taking care of cattle. What schools attended and how long?

Mission School in South Africa. Amount of work done in the following studies, give rank if possible:. History: He studied British History. Though not stated explicitly in the document, Seme seems to have been of the opinion that the Bambatha Rebellion type of response to the emerging Union was atavistic. This implied a need for the creation of a Union-wide political movement that would counter the emerging segregationist system of government.

Not only did he conceptualise the form and structure of the movement but he also facilitated the founding of the SANNC in Bloemfontein in At the founding Congress Seme delivered the keynote address, an appeal for symbolic and material support for the new formation. And when voting began for the position of president, Seme proposed that John Langalibalele Dube be elected.

In the context of the time, chiefs were the main source of potential funding. This critical factor is rarely appreciated in considerations of the fortunes and misfortunes of the SANNC in the first decade of its existence. Existing accounts of what is widely considered a dismal performance by the SANNC in its first decade often fail to reflect on the impact of the lack of funds on the organisation.

Various ventures on which he embarked failed, including buying farms in what was then the Transvaal. This was decades before its successor, the ANC, created a massive capacity for attracting funding, with serious implications for organizational core values. For much of the s, as the Union of South Africa leapt from one crisis to the next, the SANNC was unable to mount a serious challenge to the segregationist regime.

The Land Act ofintended to deny African farmers the only form of access to land they had since the conclusion of wars of conquest in the s and s, went unchallenged. Significantly, this delegation did not include Seme. During this time Seme set up a newspaper, Abantu-Batho.