Charlotte Maxeke: Google doodle honors South Africa’s mother of Black Freedom on her birthday

In honor of the South African religious leader, social, political activist and the first black woman to graduate with a university degree in South Africa, Google doodle celebrates Charlotte Maxeke’s 151st birthday. Charlotte Maxeke is widely known as the mother of Black Freedom in South Africa, she was a scholar, an evangelist and a torchbearer for Black South African women’s rights. Today’s Doodle is illustrated by South Africa-based artist Pola Maneli.

Charlotte Makgomo (née Mannya) Maxeke was born in Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape on 7 April 1871. She was the daughter of John Kgope Mannya, the son of headman Modidima Mannya from Batlokwa people, under Chief Mamafa Ramokgopa and Anna Manci, a Xhosa woman from Fort Beaufort. She eventually found herself following in her parents’ footsteps— her father was a preacher her mother a teacher.

At age 8, she began her primary school classes at a missionary school taught by the Reverend Isaac Williams Wauchope in Uitenhage. She excelled in Dutch and English, mathematics and music. She spent long hours tutoring her less skilled classmates, often with great success.

By age 20, Maxeke was invited to sing and tour Britain and the United States as part of the African Jubilee Choir. While in the United States, the choir’s tour was cut short, but Maxeke decided to stay behind as her sights were set on the opportunity to study in America.

Charlotte Maxeke earned a bachelor degree from Wilberforce University in 1903 and is recognized as the first Black South African woman to graduate from the school, as well as the first with a university degree in America.  While in school, Maxeke excelled in many fields of study and was lectured by renowned Pan-Africanist scholar, W.E.B. DuBois.

After returning to South Africa, Maxeke settled in Johannesburg and became involved in the country’s political and social rights movements. She attended the launch of the South African Native National Congress (SANCC) in Bloemfontein in 1912. As an avid opponent of the dompas, a pass that regulated and limited the freedom of Black South Africans (especially women), Maxeke helped organize the anti-dompas movement in 1913. She also founded the Bantu Women’s League of the SANCC in 1918.

Over the next 25 years, Charlotte Maxeke continued her efforts as a tireless leader and advocate for women’s rights. She worked with others across race and class, oftentimes remembered as “everyone’s friend and no one’s enemy.”

Maxeke died in 1939 in Johannesburg at the age of 68. Maxeke's name has been given to the former "Johannesburg General Hospital" which is now known as the "Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital". The South African Navy submarine SAS Charlotte Maxeke is named after her. Maxeke is often honored as the "Mother of Black Freedom in South Africa".

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