D D T JABAVU COLLECTION (DCAS Acc 47)

Abstract

DDT Jabavu (1885 – 1959) was an academic and politician. He went to school at Lovedale and at Morija Institution in Basutoland. He completed his high school career in Wales, after which he started his studies at the University of London. Between 1906 and 1912 he completed a bachelor’s degree, majoring in English, as well as a diploma in Education. Davidson Jabavu returned to South Africa in 1914, after undertaking a trip to the United States, where he visited Tuskegee and other black institutions. On his return to South Africa, he was appointed as the first member of staff at Fort Hare, which was to open the following year. Throughout his career, his reputation grew and at his retirement as professor of Bantu Languages in 1944, he was Fort Hare’s most prominent African faculty member.

On the political front Jabavu was also active. In the 1920’s and early 1930’s the Cape Native Voters’ Convention, with Jabavu as president, became the most outspoken opponent of proposals for the disfranchisement of nonwhites.

Jabavu, together with Abdul Abdurahman of the African People’s Organization, played a major role in the organizing of the Non-European Conference. It was attended by Africans, Coloureds and Indians. Meetings took place between 1927 and 1934.

In December 1935, Jabavu & Pixley Seme of the African National Congress convened the first meeting of the All African Convention, an umbrella organisation that consisted of various organisations that were opposed to segregation. In 1943 the Non-European Unity Movement was formed, with Jabavu as chairman.