University of Fort Hare


The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
It was a key institution of higher education for black Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub-Saharan Africa, creating a black African elite. Fort Hare alumni were part of many subsequent independence movements and governments of newly independent African countries.
In 1959, the university was subsumed by the apartheid system, but it is now part of South Africa's post-apartheid public higher education system. It is known for its notable alumni, which include several prominent leaders and heads of state, Nobel prize winners, business and freedom activists such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Robert Sobukwe, Oliver Tambo, Govan Mbeki, Z.K. Matthews, Robert Mugabe, Chris Hani, Dali Mpofu, Sizwe Ntsaluba, Kenneth Kaunda and many others.

History

Originally, Fort Hare was a British fort in the wars between British settlers and the Xhosa of the 19th century. Some of the ruins of the fort are still visible today, as well as graves of some of the British soldiers who died while on duty there.
During the 1830s, the Lovedale Missionary Institute was built near Fort Hare. James Stewart, one of its missionary principals, suggested in 1878 that an institution for higher education of black students needed to be created. However, he did not live to see his idea put into operation when, in 1916, Fort Hare was established with Alexander Kerr as its first principal. D.D.T Jabavu was its first black staff member who lectured in Latin and black languages. In accord with its Christian principles, fees were low and heavily subsidised. Several scholarships were also available for indigent students.
Fort Hare had many associations over the years before it became a university in its own right. It was initially the South African Native College attached to the University of South Africa. It then became the University College of Fort Hare associated with Rhodes University. With the introduction of apartheid, higher educational institutions in South Africa were strictly segregated along racial lines; blacks had previously gone to classes with Indians, coloureds and a few white students. From 1953 the school became part of the Bantu education system, and with the passage of the Promotion of Bantu Self Government Act in 1959, it was nationalized and segregated along racial and tribal lines, and teaching in African languages rather than English was encouraged. Fort Hare became a black university in its own right in 1970, strictly controlled by the state government.
It was a key institution in higher education for black Africans from 1916 to 1959. It offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub-Saharan Africa, creating a black African elite. Fort Hare alumni were part of many subsequent independence movements and governments of newly independent African countries. Amongst those who studied at Fort Hare who late became leaders of their countries were Kenneth Kaunda, Seretse Khama, Yusuf Lule, Julius Nyerere, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.
Leading opponents of the apartheid regime who attended included Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki and Oliver Tambo of the African National Congress, Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Robert Sobukwe of the Pan Africanist Congress, and Desmond Tutu. Mandela, who studied Latin and physics there for almost two years in the 1940s, left the institution as a result of a conflict with a college leader. He later wrote in his autobiography: "For young black South Africans like myself, it was Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, all rolled into one."
After the end of apartheid, Oliver Tambo became chancellor of the university in 1991.

University

The university's main campus is located in Alice near the Tyhume River. It is in the Eastern Cape Province about 50 km west of King William's Town, in a region that for a while was known as the "independent" state of Ciskei. In 2011, the Alice campus had some 6400 students. A second campus at the Eastern Cape provincial capital of Bhisho was built in 1990 and hosts a few hundred students, while the campus in East London, acquired through incorporation in 2004, has some 4300 students.
The university has five faculties all of which offer qualifications up to the doctoral level.

Strategic plans

Following a period of decline in the 1990s, Derrick Swarts was appointed vice-chancellor with the task of re-establishing the university on a sound footing. The programme launched by Swarts was the UFH Strategic Plan 2000. The plan was meant to address the university's financial situation and academic quality standards simultaneously. The focus of the university was narrowed and consequently five faculties remained:
Further narrowing the focus, 14 institutes were founded to deal with specific issues, such as the UNESCO Oliver Tambo Chair of Human Rights. Through their location the institutes have access to poor rural areas, and consequently emphasis is placed on the role of research in improving quality of life and economic growth. Among the outreach programmes, the Telkom Centre of Excellence maintains a "living laboratory" of four schools at Dwesa on the Wild Coast, which have introduced computer labs and internet access to areas that until 2005 did not even have electricity. The projects at Dwesa focus research on Information and Communication for Development.
Incorporation of Rhodes University's former campus in East London in 2004 gave the university an urban base and a coastal base for the first time. Subsequent growth and development on this campus have been rapid. Initial developments of the new multi-campus university were guided by a three-year plan; currently the university is following the new "Strategic Plan 2009-2016", set to take the institution to its centennial year.

Notable alumni

NameDoB - DoDNotes
Milner Langa Kabane18 June 1900 – 1945Educator, First Native Principal at Lovedale College, South African Politician, S.A. Bill of Rights pioneer: 1943.
Z. K. Matthews20 October 1901 – 11 May 1968Lectured at Fort Hare from 1936 to 1959
Archibald Campbell Jordan30 October 1906 – 20 October 1968Novelist, pioneer of African studies
Govan Mbeki9 July 1910 – 30 August 2001South African politician
Yusuf Lule10 April 1912 – 21 January 1985Interim president of Uganda 1979
Cedric Phatudi27 May 1912 – 7 October 1987Former Chief Minister of Lebowa 1972-1987
Kaiser Matanzima15 June 1915 – 15 June 2003President of bantustan Transkei
Mary Malahlela2 May 1916 – 8 May 1981First female black doctor in South Africa
Oliver Tambo27 October 1917 – 24 April 1993African National Congress activist, expelled while doing his second degree
Nelson Mandela18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013Former President of South Africa; expelled and later attended the University of the Witwatersrand but did not graduate
Charles Njonjo23 January 1920 –Former Attorney General of Kenya and Former Minister of Justice in Kenya
Lionel Ngakane17 July 1920 – 26 November 2003South African film maker
Seretse Khama1 July 1921 – 13 July 1980First President of Botswana
Julius Nyerere19 July 1922 – 14 October 1999First President of Tanzania
Herbert Chitepo15 June 1923 – 18 March 1975ZANU leader
Robert Mugabe21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019Former President of Zimbabwe, attended 1949-1951
Kenneth Kaunda28 April 1924 –First President of Zambia
Can Themba21 June 1924 -1968South African writer and one of the "Drum Boys" who worked for Drum and Author