Commanding the respect of all who knew her: recovering the marginalised history of Eleanor Xiniwe and the challenges of the colonial archive

ABSTRACT

Early mission-educated African intellectuals and activists in the Cape Colony in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have received some attention from historians, but other than Charlotte Maxeke and Nokuthela Dube, few of the many women striving for political, economic and social rights have been studied in depth. Eleanor Xiniwe, a pioneering business person, is one whose story deserves to be better known. This article examines some of the challenges of the colonial archive in endeavours to recover neglected and marginalised histories: it sketches Eleanor Xiniwe’s life, explores her participation in the African Choir tour to Britain in 1891–92, examines her business interests and attempts to locate her history in the context of attempts by Africans to imagine an alternative future for themselves in colonial society at a time of hardening racial attitudes and increased discrimination.

KEYWORDS:

• Eleanor Xiniwe
• African Choir
• African women’s history
• pioneer African businesses
• King William’s Town
• colonial archive

Acknowledgments

My interest in the Xiniwes began in the 1980s while working at the museum in Qonce. At the time I located Paul Xiniwe’s unmarked grave in the town cemetery and produced a small article on him as pioneer businessman, but soon realised that Eleanor was by far the more interesting historical personality. Thank you to Babalwa Magoqwana for inviting me to deliver a paper on her at the “Maternal Legacies of Knowledge: Rethinking the Sociology of the Eastern Cape” symposium in June 2021. I would like to thank Barbara Manning for bringing the existence of the photographs of the African Choir in the Hulton Archive (Getty Images) to my attention. Appreciation is also due to Xolela Mangcu, who is related to the Xiniwes through the Tyamzashes, for helpful comments on an early draft. A special thank you to Mcebisi Ndletyana for suggestions and for sharing ideas from his research on the history of the University of Fort Hare. A huge debt of gratitude is owed to my friend Andre Odendaal, whose pioneering book Vukani Bantu! opened my eyes to the world of the early African intellectuals and activists and whose comments on a draft of this article challenged me to reframe my thinking in a number of ways. Pamela Maseko kindly provided accurate translations of isiXhosa quotations in the text. Lastly, a special word of appreciation is extended to anonymous reviewers of Social Dynamics, who suggested fruitful avenues to explore and who challenged me to rethink sections of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Les Switzer (1993, 188) mistakenly refers to her as the sister of Paul Xiniwe. The brief entry in The Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography III, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland (1995, 244–245) made an important attempt to promote Eleanor Xiniwe’s history but in the absence of primary source material and detailed secondary sources was unable to include accurate details of her dates of birth and death and the date of death of her husband.

2. Pietermaritzburg Archives, Cape Province Probate Records of the Master of the High Court, 1834–1989, Death Notice and Probate Records, Eleanor Xiniwe, 7 January 1920, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BT-19BL-N?i=725&cc=2517051&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQLKL-462T. Accessed 7 May 2021. The birth, marriage and death records cited here have been digitalised by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are available at the FamilySearch website.

3. Pietermaritzburg Archives, Civil Marriage Records, 1840–1973, Duplicate Marriage Register, Annshaw Mission, 17 June 1885, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSKD-39M5-K?cc=2821281. Accessed 7 May 2021.

4. Pietermaritzburg Archives, Cape Province Probate Records of the Master of the High Court, 1834–1989, Death Notice, Paul Xiniwe, 9 May 1902, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSQX-C9K9-P?i=1571&cc=2517051. Accessed 7 May 2021; Illustrated London News, August 29, 1891, 283.

5. For a biography of Paul Xiniwe see Ntongela Masilela’s useful New African Movement website, http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/NAM/newafrre/writers/xiniwe.shtml. Accessed 12 May 2021.

6. National Archives, Cape Province Civil Records, 1840–1972, Eleanor Xiniwe, Death Certificate, 14 August 1919, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95FZ-9S41?i=544&cc=1779109&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AWX7M-ZL3Z. Accessed 7 May 2021; Eleanor Xiniwe Death Notice and Probate Records, 7 January 1920.

7. I am grateful to Mcebisi Ndletyana for this (pers. comm., 1 June 2021).

8. The photographs were taken by the London Stereoscopic Company. Copyright now rests with the Hulton Archives, Getty Images. See https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/south-african-singer-eleanor-xiniwe-a-member-of-the-african-news-photo/513413897 and https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/south-african-singer-eleanor-xiniwe-a-member-of-the-african-news-photo/513413895. Accessed 8 April 2023.

9. Pietermaritzburg Archives, Cape Province Probate Records of the Master of the High Court, 1834–1989, Death Notice Kate Soga (Xiniwe), 26 December 1923, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BB-P3DC-V?i=475&cc=2517051&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQGKL-J3N5. Accessed 7 May 2021.

10. Death Notice and Probate Records, Eleanor Xiniwe, 7 January 1920.

11. Death Notice and Probate Records, Eleanor Xiniwe, 7 January 1920: Letter, Squire, Smith & Laurie to Master of the Supreme Court, 2 November 1925.

12. I am indebted to Andre Odendaal for challenging my thinking in this regard (pers. comm., June 16, 2021).

13. I am grateful to Mcebisi Ndletyana who is researching a history of the University of Fort Hare for this point (pers. comm., June 1, 2021).

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Notes on contributors

Denver A. Webb

Denver A. Webb is an historian at Nelson Mandela University, where he works as the Senior Director for Strategic Resource Mobilisation and Advancement. He holds a DLitt et. Phil from the University of Fort Hare. He publishes on the nature of colonial power in South Africa and African responses to colonialism.