Charlotte Makgoma Manye Maxeke: her legacy lives on

Abstract

This article deals more with Charlotte Maxeke’s work than with the details of her life history. Maxeke was the first black South African woman to receive a BSc degree − this at a time when few women were graduating from universities and most were training to become teachers or nurses. She told her family in Johannesburg, including her mother’s cousin, Mangena Mokone, about the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) in America and so opened the way for the AMEC to commence their work in South Africa, a work that continues to this day. Maxeke was the first South African black woman to be appointed as a probation officer and this opened the way for others to do the same work. She was the founder of the Bantu Women’s League, which is now known as the Women’s League of the African National Congress. She was also one of the founders and the first President of the National Council of African Women. She worked tirelessly for the good of the African people, particularly black women. The many papers that she read at conferences have left us a record of what she taught and what motivated her life.