Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Charlotte Maxeke
1872 – 1939
The first Black South African woman to hold a university degree
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the South Africa Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
She took a BSc at Wilberforce in Ohio in 1903 — the first Black South African woman with a degree, and the first African woman to graduate from an American university. In 1918 she founded the first women's organisation the country had.
Charlotte Mannya Maxeke graduated BSc from Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1903, becoming the first Black South African woman to hold a university degree and the first African woman to graduate from an American university.
In 1918 she founded the Bantu Women's League, the first women's organisation in South Africa, formed in protest at the extension of the pass laws to women — the same fight Lilian Ngoyi's generation would carry to the Union Buildings four decades later. She is widely called the mother of Black freedom in South Africa.
In 1918 she founded the Bantu Women's League, the first women's organisation in South Africa, formed in protest at the extension of the pass laws to women — the same fight Lilian Ngoyi's generation would carry to the Union Buildings four decades later. She is widely called the mother of Black freedom in South Africa.
- Wikipedia — Charlotte Maxeke
- South African History Online — Charlotte Maxeke
- South African History Online — Bantu Women's League
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