John Tengo Jabavu

Who was John Tengo Jabavu?

John Tengo Jabavu was a political activist and the editor of South Africa's first newspaper to be written in Xhosa.

In 1876, Jabavu took over editorship of the Isigidimi samaXhosa, and by the early 1880s had become an important political force. Jabavu's writings tended to focus on the threat of growing Afrikaner nationalism and his demands for equal rights for South Africa's black population. Tengo Jabavu was also known as a proponent of women's rights as well as public education.

In recognition of his political influence, a group of prominent Cape Colony political figures approached Tengo Jabavu in 1883 with a request for him to stand for election to the Cape Parliament. They recommended that he represent one of the constituencies of the Cape where Black African voters formed a significant percentage of the electorate, such as Victoria East. However Jabavu declined, citing the possibility that such a move would unite and aggravate reactionary elements in the Cape Parliament and would therefore be counterproductive. Nonetheless, he later lent his powerful support to the more liberal leaders of the Cape's South African Party against the repressive policies of Rhodes's "Progressives"