Home > Z.K. Mathews

Z.K. was born in Winter's Rush near Kimberley in 1901, the son of a Bamangwato mineworker. Z.K. grew up in urban Kimberley, but maintained close connections with his mother’s rural Barolong relatives. He went to high school in the eastern Cape where he attended Lovedale. After Lovedale he studied at Fort Hare University, and in 1923 he wrote the external examination of the University of South Africa.

In 1925 he was appointed head of the high school at Adams College in Natal, where Albert Luthuli was also a teacher. With Luthuli he attended meetings of the Durban Joint Council and held office in the Natal Teacher’s Association, of which he eventually became President.

It was while he was in Natal that he met, fell in love with, and in 1928 married Frieda Bokwe, daughter of John Knox Bokwe.

In 1930 after private study, he earned an LLB degree in South Africa, a degree he was awarded once again by the University of South Africa. He was admitted as an attorney and practiced for a short time in Alice. In 1933 he was invited to study at Yale University in the United States, and there in the following year he completed an MA. He then went on to spend a year at the London School of Economics where he studied anthropology under Bronislaw Malinowski.

He returned to South Africa in 1935 and in 1936 was appointed Lecturer in Social Anthropology and Native Law and Administration at Fort Hare University. After D.D.T. Jabavu’s retirement in 1944Events World War II January January 4 The Battle of Monte Cassino begins. January 5 Murder of Danish playwright Kaj Munck January 17 British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River. January 20 The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin;, Z.K. was promoted to Professor and became head of Fort Hare’s Department of African Studies.

Z.K. did not confine himself to academic studies; he combined his study of anthropology and the law with an active political involvement. He found his true political home in the ANC. He had attended meetings of Congress as a boy in the company of Sol Plaatje, a senior relative, but it was only in 1940Events January-February January 5 FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time. January 6 World War II: Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the Poznan, Warthegau. January 12 World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland. February 2 F that he became a member of the organisation. In 19431943 is the common year starting on Friday. Events January January 4 End of term for Culbert Olson, 29th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Earl Warren. January 11 The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China. January 1 he was elected to the National Executive Committee and at the same time he became a member of the Native Representative Council, a purely advisory body that has been condemned as a “toy telephone” and which Z.K. found generally frustrating, although he found dealing with the Native Education Act of 1945 a “valuable experience” not for the process but for the people he met.

In June 19491949 is the common year starting on Saturday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 4 RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage January 4 February 22 Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, Z.K. succeeded James Calata as ANC provincial president in the Cape. In June 1952Summary of notable events in 1952 . Events January events January 8 West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders. January 24 Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria. January 24 Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada., on the eve of the Defiance Campaign, he left South Africa, and took up a position as visiting professor at New York’s Union Theological Seminary. He returned home in May 19531953 is a common year starting on Thursday (click on link for the calendar). Events January events January 7 President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. January 13 Marshal Josip Broz Tito chosen President of Yugosl, and although he was not present at the Congress of the People in 19551955 is a common year starting on Saturday. see link for calendar) Events January events January 2 Panama president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated. January 19 The Scrabble board game debuts. February events February 8 Nikolai Bulganin ousts Georgi Mal he drew up the Freedom Charter that was adopted there.

Z.K. was arrested in December 19561956 is a leap year starting on Sunday. see link for calendar) Events January January 1 End of Anglo- Egyptian Condominium in Sudan. January 16 President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine January 26 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in, and was one of the accused in the Treason Trial. On his release from the trial in late 1958, he returned to Fort Hare, but resigned his post in protest against the passing of legislation which reduced the university to an ethnic college for the Xhosa community only. In 1961 he moved to Geneva to become secretary of the Africa division of the World Council of Churches. In 1966 he accepted the post of Botswana ambassador to the United States and he died there in Washington in May 1968.