- Karis , T. and Carter , G. , eds. 1972–77 . From Protest to Challenge Vol. 4 , Stanford Probably the best-known is that in eds, vols.(vol. 4, pp. 137–39. The volume under review might well have reprinted Craig Charney's sketch of Seme's life: ‘Pixley Seme '06: Father of the African National Congress’, Columbia College Today, 14, 2 (Spring/Summer 1987)
- Mutloatse , M. , ed. 1981 . Reconstruction Johannesburg This article by Thema, an ANC activist who was associated with the Joint Council movement in the 1920s, was included in, ed.,(In its original form it had the subtitle ‘The Life of the late Dr Pixley Seme’
- Haswell , H. Curator of the Columbiana collection in the Low Library Columbia University . I travelled to Columbia in October 1990 to see this file and was given this information by
- Butcher , M. J. , MacCrone , I. D. , Wilson , M. and Hutt , W. H. 1972 . The Negro in American Culture 281 New York I am greatly indebted to Professor Robert Edgar of Howard University, who sent me photocopies of the relevant documents from the Locke Papers in the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University. Locke (1886–1955) studied at Harvard, Berlin and Hertford College, Oxford, before taking up a post at Howard in 1912. He became Professor of Philosophy there, but was ‘equally at home in the world of letters and the arts’: 2nd ed. (He became the leading critic of the Harlem Renaissance, and wrote mainly about the African American contribution to literature and art. His books include The Neyo and His Music (Washington, 1936) and he co-edited When Races Meet A Study in Race and Culture Contacts (New York, 1942), which included contributions by such South African scholars as
- Hunt Davis , R. 1978 . “The Black American Education Component in African Responses to Colonialism in South Africa ca. 1890–1914’ . Journal of Southern African Affairs , 3 ( 1 ) Jan. : 69 – 71 . The fullest analysis of the number of such students is in,.I am indebted to Hunt Davis for sending me offprints of his articles
- Geiss , I. 1974 . The Pan-African Movement 457 London (n. 147,and see, for Nkrumah's time abroad, K. Nkrumah, Ghana (London, 1957)
- Hunt Davis , R. and Dube , John L. Winter 1975–76 . A South African Exponent of Booker T. Washington’ . Journal of African Studies , 2 ( 4 ) : 497 – 528 . ;R. Ralston, ‘American Episodes in the Making of an African Leaden A Case Study of Alfred B. Xuma (1893–1962)’, International Journal of African Historical Studies 6, 1 (1973), 72–93
- Marks , S. 1975 . ‘The Ambiguities of Dependence: John L. Dube of Natal’ . Journal of Southern African Studies , 1 ( 2 ) Apr. Tlie Ambiguities of Dependence: Class, Nationalism and the State in Twentieth-Century Natal (Johannesburg, 1986)
- Seme , Jesus College Register information provided by Seme, 1907. I am indebted to the Archivist of Jesus College, Oxford, for this and other information. When in America, Seme claimed that he was a nephew of ‘Umqawe, one of the most powerful chiefs of Zululand’: Rive and Couzens,, 68: undated cutting. Another newspaper gave his father's name as ‘Knawana of Royal Zulu blood’: ibid. 74, and cf. 71
- Ngubane , J. 1963 . An African Explains Apartheid 79 London (Ngubane, who knew Seme until his death (p. 75), said he came of a Very humble Tonga family' (p. 71). Two of Seme's sisters married preachers (Rive and Couzens, Seme, 33);one of his brothers followed him to New York, obtained a medical degree at New York University, and then returned to Inanda Mission. Further information about his childhood may be obtained from the files of the American Board Mission, Harvard University
- Rive and Couzens . Seme 34 S. Marks, Reluctant Rebellion (Oxford, 1970), 60
- Ngubane . An African Explains Apartheid 71 The Boston Journal was to describe Dube as his cousin, and Rive uses that term; it was not strictly accurate: Rive and Couzens, Seme, 68 and, e.g., 12
- Rive and Couzens . Seme , 33 36 39
- Davis . ‘John L. Dube’ Marks, ‘John L. Dube of Natal’
- Rive and Couzens . Seme , 71
- Ibid. , 42
- Ibid. 45: Merritt to Cutler, 31 May 1902
- Charney . ‘Pixley Seme’ 15
- 1903 . Cutting from Boston Journal, n.d.(in Rive and Couzens, Seme, 68
- Personal communication from Marvin Faison, Virginia, who checked the records in the Registration Office, Columbia University. A contemporary of Seme at Columbia told Z.K. Matthews in 1952 that Seme had been ‘one of the most brilliant students of his day’: Imvo, 25 Nov. 1961: Carter-Karis Political Documents on Microfilm (hereafter C-K Documents), 2: XS14
- 1906 . The Columbian Nineteen-Six 385 Columbia (cf. 42. His was the only black face in the class of 1906
- Rive and Couzens . Seme 64 Seme to Sir, 20 Aug. 1903
- The Columbian Nineteen-Six 385
- 1906 . The Columbia Monthly , 3 ( 6 ) Apr. : 143 – 6 . News of his triumph quickly travelled back to South Africa: e.g. Izwi Labantu, 8 May 1906. His speech was printed in,;Journal of the Royal African Society, 1905–06;J.M. Webb, 77k;Black Man the Father of Civilization Proven by Biblical History (Seattle, 1910), 41–9;and W.H. Ferris, The African Abroad 1 (New Haven, 1913), 436–9. It is also in Karis and Carter, Protest to Challenge, vol. 1, pp. 69–71
- Odendaal , A. 1984 . Vukani Bantu The Beginnings of Black Protest Politics in South Africa Cape Town The graduation photograph is in Charney, ‘Pixley Seme’, 14.See also the photographs in (nos 10, 14, and on the cover of the book under review. The latter is better reproduced in Reader's Digest, Illustrated History of South Africa (Cape Town, 1988), 288
- Pan-African Movement 293 Geiss
- Seme , P. The African National Confess—Is it Dead? C-K Documents,(n.p., n.d.[1932J)
- Documents , Z. and Matthews , K. 1961 . Imvo , 25 Nov. C-K in
- C-K Documents, Seme, The African National Congress-Is it Dead?.
- Rive and Couzens . Seme 69 undated cutting from Boston Journal.
- 1906 . Ibid. 71: undated cutting
- Jesus College Register
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 28 Aug. 1907
- Anderson , J. 1982 . Harlem: The Great Black Way 1900–1950 201 London (Locke was once called ‘a malicious, spiteful little snot…’: ibid.
- Among the undergraduates with whom he may have come into contact while he was at Oxford was Eric Walker, then at Merton College, who until 1936 was Professor of History at the University of Cape Town
- Pan-African Movement , 294 Geiss,,quoting L. Harlan, ‘Booker T. Washington and the White Man's Burden’, American Historical Review 71 (Jan. 1966), 463
- Harlan , L. and Smock , R. , eds. The Booker T. Washington Papers, vol. 9 (Urbana, 1980), 522: Washington to Seme, 29 Apr. 1908 See also p. 204: Seme to Washington, 29 Jan. 1907
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 10 Mar. 1908
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 23 June (?) 1908
- Locke Papers, Thornton and Son to Locke, 27 Jan. 1909. Seme asked Locke to return the books, which he called Worthless…I have not been able to find a single decision which is [a] modern authority’: Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, undated
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, undated
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 26 Nov. 1909 and undated
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 18 March 1908
- Walshe , P. 1970 . The Rise of African Nationalism in South Africa 33 London Walshe says he lost financial support from his family, crippled by a cattle disease, at this time: (This is probably what Seme told Alice Werner
- Willan , B. 1984 . Sol Plaatje: A Biography 185ff Johannesburg On Solomon and Werner see esp.
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, undated
- Saunders , C. 1979 . “ ‘The Creation of Ndabeni’ ” . In Studies in the History of Cape Town Edited by: Saunders , C. 179 Cape Town
- See, for example, British Parliamentary Papers, Cd.2927;A. Mangena, plaintiff, vs G.E. Knight et al., defendants, 2 Dec. 1907: record in African Studies Library, University of Cape Town
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, undated and 5 Oct. 1909
- Vukani Bantu 205 Odendaal
- Ibid. esp. 231
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, undated [1909]
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 11 Feb. 1910
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 6 Feb. 1910
- Seme 82 Rive and Couzens
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 6 March 1911
- Karis and Carter . Protest to Challenge , 4 74 The first African to practise as an attorney in South Africa was a West African, Akilagpa Osabrampa Sawyer
- Couzens , T. ‘Seme: Lawyer and Leader’ . African Law Review , 1 (Jan. 1987), 4, citing Transvaal Lawyers Association Register
- Skota , T. D.M. The African Who's Who (n.p., n.d.), 91;The African Yearly Register (n.p., n.d.), 43
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 1 Sep. 1911
- Willan . Sol Plaatje , 151 citing Seme to Editor, Ilanga lose Natal, 15 Dec. 1911
- Imvo Zabantsundu (South African Native Opinion), 24 Jan. 1912
- Molema , S. M. 1920 . The Bantu Past and Present 303 Edinburgh
- Odendaal . Vukani Bantu 259
- University of the Witwatersrand, Molema-Plaatje Papers, C.c.9, Seme to Molema, 3 Nov. 1911
- Odendaal . Vukani Bantu 262
- Imvo Zabantsundu, 24 Jan. 1911. Seme had clearly gone to great trouble to And out the details of Rubusana's life
- Imvo Zabantsundu, 24 Oct. 1911,in Karis and Carter, Protest to Challenge, vol. 1, 71–73 (quotation from p. 72)
- Davenport , T. R.H. South Africa: A Modem History 4 th ed. (London, 1991), 236
- C-K Documents, Seme to Calata, 9 Dec. 1942
- The African National Confess—Is it Dead? 4 C-K Documents, Seme
- Jordan , P. 1988 . “The South African Liberation Movement and the Making of a New Nation’ ” . In The National Question in South Africa Edited by: van Diepen , M. 113 – 15 . London
- Financial problems dogged∼him most of his life: for a reference to his debts see, e.g. Ralph Bunche's Journal, 1937: University of California, Los Angeles, Library. I thank Robert Edgar for showing me a transcript; he is preparing the journal for publication
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 24 Jan. 1912
- See, for example, H. Selby Msimang Looks Back (Johannesburg, n.d.), 5
- Macmillan , H. 1986 . “ ‘A Nation Divided? The Swazi in Swaziland and the Transvaal, 1865–1986’ ” . In The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa Edited by: Vail , L. 295 London (L. and D. Switzer, The Black Press in South Africa and Lesotho (Boston, 1979), 25–6.Seme seems to have tried to block the printing of Plaatje's Tsala ea Batho: Molema-Plaatje Papers, Da 20, Plaatje to Molema, 14 Aug. 1912
- The Black Press 25 Switzer and Switzer
- Starfield , J. 1988 . ‘“Not Quite History”: The Autobiographies of H. Selby Msiraang and R.V. Selope Thema and the Writing of South African History’ . Social Dynamics , 14 : 2 – 7 . See, for example,,26;Willan, Sol Plaatje, 211–14
- Bonner , P. 1982 . “ ‘The Transvaal Native Congress, 1917–1920: the Radicalisation of the Black Petty Bourgeoisie on the Rand’ ” . In Industralisation and Social Change in South Africa Edited by: Marks , S. and Rathbone , R. London
- Switzer and Switzer . The Black Press 38 Seme's newspaper changed its name to Dcwezi le Afrika and ran until 1932. The first Ibvezi had been an American Board Mission paper
- Walshe . Rise of African Nationalism 230
- Rive and Couzens . Seme , 4 citing Minute Book of the Native Farmers' Association of Africa Limited. See T. Keegan, Rural Transformations in Industrializing South Africa (Johannesburg, 1986), 178–9
- For example, Karis and Carter, Protest to Challenge, vol. 4, 138
- Morrell , R. ‘“Pipping a Little Game in the Bud”—Pixley Isaka ka Seme, Land Purchase and Rural Differentiation in the Eastern Transvaal’ (Paper presented to History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand, 1987), 4. Ngema, who made an offer to purchase, contacted Saul Msane, a colleague of Seme's
- Morrel . ‘Little Game’ 5 S.T. Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa (London, 1916), 95. Seme did not join in Congress protests against the Land Act
- Morrel , R. 1989 . ‘African Land Purchase and the 1913 Natives Land Act in the Eastern Transvaal’ . South African Historical Journal , 21 esp. 7–8, 14
- Rich , P. 1989 . “ ‘Managing Black Leadership. The Joint Councils, Urban Trading and Political Conflict in the Orange Free State, 1925–1942’ ” . In Holding Their Ground Edited by: Bonner , P. 181 Johannesburg in
- C-K Documents, H.S. Msimang (1886–1982) interview, March 1964
- Marks . “ chapter 2 ” . In Ambiguities of Dependence
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 27 Jan. 1913. He told Locke that he hoped to spend two to three months overseas, but he did not go
- For example, Seme helped to raise money for Chief Montsioa of the Rolong in 1917: Molema-Plaatje Papers, Da 53
- Marks . Reluctant Rebellion 365 Buthelezi in Kwazulu Legislative Assembly Debates, vol. 7 (14 Oct. 1975), 889
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 27 Jan. 1913
- Kuper , H. 1978 . Sobhuza II: Ngwenyama and King of Swaziland 47 London (n. 7
- Ngubane . An African Explains Apartheid 74
- Cope , N. L.G. 1985 . ‘The Zulu Royal Family Under the South African Government, 1910–1933: Solomon kaDinuzulu, Inkatha and Zulu Nationalism’ 141 University of Natal . (PhD thesis,,, 191
- Quoted in Cope, ‘Zulu Royal Family’, 79
- Chief Native Commissioner to Secretary for Native Affairs, 3 Nov. 1913, quoted in Cope ‘Zulu Royal Family’, 83
- Ibid
- Ibid., 191
- Ibid., 196;Kuper, Sobhuza II, 101
- Cope . ‘Zulu Royal Family’, esp. 501 n. 146 Kuper, Sobhuza II 101, 104
- Kuper . Sobhuza II 47 n. 2
- Ibid, Sl-IOS.
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 4 Feb. 1924, and, for the LL.D., Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 10 Jan. 1925
- See the description in Kuper, Sobhuza II, esp. 7
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 4 Feb. 1924
- Locke Papers, Seme to Locke, 10 Jan. 1925
- Kuper . Sobhuza II 92 See Kuper for a full discussion of the Swazi land claim
- Karis and Carter . Protest to Challenge vol. 2 , 310
- Lodge , T. 1983 . Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 9 Johannesburg (M.L. Faison, ‘Pixley ka Isaka Seme, President-General of the African National Congess 1930–1937: A Study of the Impact of his leadership and Ideology on the Congress’ (MA thesis, Columbia University, 1983)
- Karis and Carter , eds. “ ‘I Appeal to the African Nation’ ” . In Protest to Challenge Vol. 2 , 316 – 17 . On this, see especially his in vol.
- University of the Witwatersrand, Dept. of Historical Papers, AD 1438, Minutes of Evidence of Native Economic Commission, pp. 7400–29
- See note 111 above
- Karis and Carter . Protest to Challenge vol. 2 , 312
- Couzens . ‘Seme: Lawyer and Leader’ 5
- Macmillan . 1932 . “ ‘Nation Divided’, 303, 321 n. 84 and n. 85. Seme wrote the preface to ” . In The Petition of the Swan Tribes of the Eastern Transvaal to the Union Parliament Newcastle
- Rich , P. and Macmillan , W. M. 1989 . “ South African Segregation and Commonwealth Race Relations, 1919–1938’ ” . In Africa and Empire Edited by: Macmillan , H. and Marks , S. 207 London Bunche Journal (see n. 73 above). Bunche found Seme a ‘hesitant speaker, without force or personality’. Nothing came of Seme's idea that the ANC could work with the Joint Councils on a ‘common programme’:, in eds,(citing Umteteli wa Bantu, 29 Sep. 1934
- Karis and Carter . Protest to Challenge vol. 2 , 223 p.
- On his readmission, see University of the Witwatersrand, South African Institute of Race Relations Papers, 5b 4.6;Couzens, ‘Seme: Lawyer and Leader’, 5
- Mouton , F. A. ‘Die Dood van Johannes Nkosi, Rewolusionere Martelaar’ . South African Historical Journal , 19 (Nov. 1987), 144,citing Natal Advertiser, 19 Dec. 1930
- Coka , G. 1991 . The Autobiography of Gilbert Coka 1910–1935 57 Cape Town (reprint,,.See J. and R. Simons, Class and Colour in South Africa 1850–1950 (Harmondsworth, 1969), esp. 476
- Kwazulu Legislative Assembly Debates, vol. 7 (14 Oct. 1975), 889: speech by G. Buthelezi.See also G. Mare and G. Hamilton, An Appetite for Power: Buthelezi's Inkatha and South Africa (Johannesburg, 1987), 140
- Karis and Carter . Rotest to Challenge vol. 2 , 100 Couzens, ‘Seme: Lawyer and Leader’, 5
- C-K Documents, funeral programme; Matthews in Imvo, 25 Nov. 1961
- Sampson , A. 1958 . The Treason Cage 85 London (Rive paraphrases this and agrees with this statement: Rive and Couzens, Seme, 23
- Temkin , B. 1976 . Gatsha Buthelezi: Zulu Statesman 37 Cape Town (quoting Seme to Z.K. Matthews
- Kwazulu Legislative Assembly Debates, vol. 7 (14 Oct. 1975), 889;Buthelezi interview, Post, 19 March 1980;P.D.S. Forsyth, ‘The Past as the Present: Chief A.N.M.G. Buthelezi's Use of History as a Source of Political Legitimation’ (MA thesis, University of Natal, 1989), esp. 19, 87, 109, 135;Mare and Hamilton, Appetite for Power 24,140
- C-K Documents, Seme, The African National Congress-Is it Dead?.
- Ngubane , K. 30 June 1951 . “ ‘Dr P. ka I. Seme: A Tribute’ ” . In Inkundla ya Bantu 30 June , C-K Documents, J
South African Historical Journal
Volume 25, 1991 - Issue 1