Charlotte Maxeke

Charlotte Makgomo (née Mannya) Maxeke (7 April 1871 – 16 October 1939) was a South African religious leader, social and political activist. By graduating with a B.Sc. from Wilberforce University, Ohio, in 1903, she became the first black woman in South Africa to graduate with a university degree as well as the first African woman to graduate from an American university.

Early life

Charlotte Makgomo Mannya was born in Ga-Ramokgopa, Limpopo, South Africa, on 7 April 1871 and grew up in Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape. She was the daughter of John Kgope Mannya, the son of headman Modidima Mannya of the Batlokwa people, under Chief Mamafa Ramokgopa and Anna Manci, a Xhosa woman from Fort Beaufort. Mannya's father was a roads foreman and Presbyterian lay preacher, and her mother was a teacher. Mannya's grandfather served as a key adviser to the king of the Basothos. Mannya's date of birth is disputed, with possible dates ranging from 1871, 1872 to 1874. The former minister of Home Affairs of South Africa, Naledi Pandor, took special interest in this detail of Charlotte Maxeke's life, however, no records were found. The 1871 date is also often accepted as it does not conflict with the age of her younger sister Katie, who was born in 1873.

It was at Wilberforce that Mannya met her future husband, Dr Marshall Maxeke, a Xhosa born on 1 November 1874 at Middledrift. The couple married in 1903.

Political activism and later life

Charlotte Maxeke became politically active while in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in which she played a part in bringing to South Africa. While in the AME Church, she was heavily involved in teaching and preaching the Gospel and advocating education for Africans of South Africa. The church later elected her president of the Women's Missionary Society.

Shortly after her return to South Africa in 1902, Maxeke began her involvement in anti-colonial politics. She, along with two other individuals from Transvaal, attended an early South African Native National Congress meeting, and was one of the few women present. She was notably the first South African Social worker, appointed as Welfare Officer to the Johannesburg Magisterial Court and involved in juvenile work. Maxeke attended the formal launch of the South African Native National Congress in Bloemfontein in 1912. Maxeke also became active in movements against pass laws through her political activities. During the Bloemfontein anti-pass campaign, Maxeke served as an impetus towards eventual protest by organizing women against the pass laws.

Many of Maxeke's concerns were related to social issues as well as ones that concerned the Church. In Umteteli wa Bantu, a multilingual weekly Johannesburg newspaper, she wrote in Xhosa about women's issues.

In 1918, Maxeke founded the Bantu Women's League (BWL), which later became part of the African National Congress Women's League. This decision stemmed from her involvement in anti-pass law demonstrations. The BWL under Maxeke was a grassroots movement that served as a vehicle for taking up grievances from a largely poor and rural base. Maxeke addressed an organisation for the voting rights of women — the Women's Reform Club in Pretoria, and also joined the Council of Europeans and Bantus[clarify]. She was elected as the president of the Women's missionary society. Maxeke participated with protests related to low wages at Witwatersrand and eventually joined the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union in 1920. Her leadership skills prompted the South African Ministry of Education to call her to call her to testify before several government commissions in Johannesburg on matters concerning African education. This was a first for any African of any gender. Maxeke continued to be involved in many multiracial groups fighting against the Apartheid system and for women's rights.

Her husband, Marshall Maxeke, died in 1928. The same year Charlotte Maxeke set up an employment agency for Africans in Johannesburg and also began service as a juvenile parole officer. The three Heroine-class submarines in service with the South African Navy were each named after powerful South African women: S101 is named , after a chief of the Tlôkwa people, S102 is , and S103 is , named for the Rain Queen of the Lobedu people.

The ANC also hosts an annual Charlotte Maxeke Memorial Lecture. Beatrice Street in Durban was changed to Charlotte Maxeke Street in her honour. As the woman who contributed and brought African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) to South Africa and was elected as the president, her legacy now in South Africa is the league for women named "Charlotte Maxeke ladies fellowship".

In August 2026, the South African Reserve Bank launched a commemorative R2 coins to celebrate 125 anniversary of Maxeke since she became the first Black woman to earn a university degree. The coins also pays tribute to the Women's March of 1956.