Our debt to Charlotte Maxeke: 150 years after her birth, she's still our mother
Charlotte Maxeke - born 150 years ago this month - is celebrated as a mother figure of the struggle, sometimes at the expense of her radical religious and intellectual contributions rooted in an ”Ethiopianist” vision of black independence, writes Panashe Chigumadzi in the first of two articles on Maxeke
18 April 2021 - 00:00
From the Chris Hani Road highway into Soweto, not too far from Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, you can see Charlotte Makgomo Maxeke's grave in the Nancefield Cemetery. Maxeke (née Mannya) died in poverty and relative obscurity in 1939, but her grave site is now something of a small monument - a black granite tomb and headstone framed by four pillars and topped by a roof - befitting a struggle heroine often called the "mother of black freedom". It was declared a national heritage site in 2010...
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