John Langalibalele Dube Remembered: 80 Years On
Today marks the 80th year of John Langalibalele Dube death, who passed on 11 February 1946 at Umhlanga in Natal. John Langalibalele Dube, fondly known as uMafukuzela, had a father, who was one of the first ordained pastors of the American Zulu Mission. Dube’s uncle, Mqhawe, was a Zulu Chief of the Ngcobo clan, and Dube was supposed to be Chief of the Qadi tribe. Dube spent his early years at Adams Mission School where his father served as a Congregational Minister.
Dube became an essayist, philosopher, educator, political activist, publisher, editor, novelist and poet. He was also an outstanding pan-African, as the founding President of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which became the African National Congress (ANC) in 1923. Dube served as the President of SANNC between 1912 and 1917.
Dube was brought to America by returning missionaries and attended Oberlin Preparatory Academy. He returned to South Africa, where in 1901 he and his first wife, Nokutela Mdima Dube (whom he married in 1894), founded the Zulu Christian Industrial School which is now the Ohlange High School at Ohlange, near Phoenix and EkuPhakameni. This was the first educational institution in South Africa to be founded by black people. Dube had been inspired by Washington’s Tuskegee Institute. He gave lectures by invitation and was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy as a result. Dube had identified the need to combine Western educat
