‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.’[1]
Author: Ayanda Siphesihle Simelane
This is a brief representation of women’s role in uplifting a self-sufficient community of amakholwa[2] in Inanda through education. Busisiwe ‘Noni’ MaCibane[3] Ndlovu was an educator of note, who built a school in Inanda, near the Phoenix Settlement, home of Mahatma Gandhi during his time in South Africa. The Settlement was turned into a museum, one of the well-known post-apartheid heritage sites that tells the story of Gandhi and the community of Inanda. However, Mam’Ndlovu is not mentioned at the site or any museum within the Inanda Heritage Route.
In conversation with Bongani Mthembu, a Tourism Officer based at the Phoenix Settlement, I learned about Ndlovu.It has been challenging to find information about Busisiwe Ndlovu. Her name is well known in the community through oral history but not through tangible records. This can be problematic as the versions of our past may differ from person to person, and there may be holes in the oral memory. Nonetheless, this is a story worth telling.
Busisiwe ‘Noni’ MaCibane Ndlovu was born in a place called Dalibha, in Ndwedwe which is just outside the northern parts of Durban.[4] She was born a Cibane, her mother was a Luthuli, and she married a Ndlovu and became known as Mam’Ndlovu.[5] I could not identify her exact birth date, but she was born around the 1910s, and she passed away in 1980. Mam’Ndlovu studied at Ohlange Institute and became an educator. Ohlange is believed to be the first school established by Black people in South Africa, in 1900. The founders, John Langalibalele Dube and his first wife Nokutela maMdima Dube were educated by American missionaries at Adams College and Inanda Seminary respectively. Heather Hughes described Ohlange as a purely African institute, it was the first school to be opened with independent funding and was supported by Inkosi uMqhawe Ngcobo of AmaQadi (chief of the Qadi clan) who was also John Dube’s cousin.[6] The school promoted self-reliance and strived to teach black people to be independent. In Dube’s words, “…we should become a civilised people as we ought to be. We want our education to have effect on all the people: to teach the hand to work, the brain to understand, and the heart to serve.’’[7] In its initial stages, the school focused on industrial education, Christian ethos, and music played a big role in the school. The land to build Ohlange was acquired from Inkosi uMqhawe.
Around the 1960s, Mam’Ndlovu started a school in what was known as New Farm and now Bhambayi, in Inanda and named the school Othandweni Primary School.[8] The name could be translated to ‘a place of love’. Mthembu described how this was a beautiful and fitting name, that Mam’Ndlovu was filled with love and wanted beautiful things for her community.[9] Othandweni Primary School was a lower primary, schooling ended at standard 4 and was commonly known as isikole sakwa Ndlovu, which can be translated to ‘the Ndlovu School’. The school was located at the Ndlovu homestead, between the Phoenix Settlement (Mahatma Gandhi’s home in South Africa) and Ekuphakameni (home of Prophet Isaiah Shembe). Adjacent to the school was a sport field where Othandweni competed with other schools. The school was run by Mam’Ndlovu, and all the teachers were female, and it is believed that they all studied at Ohlange. It was one of the few schools in Inanda that was started by community members who saw a need for schooling as there was limited space and the need for formal education was on the rise. Notable nearby schools were the Gandhi School at the Phoenix Settlement and Shembe Primary School; Inanda Day School was too far for children who stayed at New Farm. The Gandhi school was for Indians; they were transported by buses from other neighbourhoods like Verulam to attend the school, and only Indian learners were accommodated.[10]
Mam’Ndlovu was a United Congregational Church member resulting from the American Board of Foreign Missions. The founders of Adams College and Inanda Seminary were American Board missionaries; these missionaries also assisted John and Nokutela Dube with their mission to start Ohlange, but the colonial government did not offer any support. The education that Mam’Ndlovu received at Ohlange became evident in the way that she ran her school. After starting the school Ohlange, Dube sought to build a community around it and sold plots of land for small amounts, and that is how New Farm came into being. As a result, another branch of the church was opened at New Farm, and Mam’Ndlovu played a leading role in the church.
The community of New Farm woke up early in the mornings at four o’ clock and worked on the fields, supervised by Mam’Ndlovu with other women and after a few hours, school would start.[11] There were a group of women from the area who made use of the plots at the Phoenix Settlement for farming, they had organised themselves into women’s clubs. They were described as a self-sufficient community; they grew their own food, and some were entrepreneurs.[12] After school, she also held Bible studies and went around the community preaching, and the community of New Farm was happy with this lifestyle.[13]
It is interesting how, during the height of apartheid, women could run a school and lead the community; it is said that there were no issues regarding the leadership of women. As the school was only up to Standard 4, learners would go to Shembe Primary, which was a school that was located at the Ekuphakameni area and through the son of Prophet Isaiah Shembe, Galile Shembe, who was an educator. Shembe Primary School was a government school and Othandweni was independent. After completing Standard 4, learners of Othandweni would go to Shembe Primary, it is said that their reports were not well received there and that they had to take another test to prove that they were indeed ready for Standard 5.[14]
Many people who became teachers and nurses, community leaders started school at Othandweni. The learners coming from Othandweni would be made to stand in the school assembly and tested there in front of other learners. This they explained as discriminatory and embarrassing.[15] It was not done to learners coming from other government schools and they would be treated differently after passing the ‘entrance test’. The school resulted from a shortage of schools for Black learners but they were discriminated in government schools, at various levels. It is believed that Mam’Ndlovu was largely influenced by John Dube and upheld his principles, which included giving Black people opportunities and education that would enable them to be self-sufficient, but the leadership of government schools did not uphold the same principles.[16] The school only survived two years after her death.
Life was disrupted by political unrest during apartheid. New Farm started experiencing an influx of people coming from different areas. A group of AmaMpondo who worked for Indians in the sugarcane fields started moving into the area, and the rise of the United Democratic Front resulted in an influx of people.[17] People who were not known as part of the New Farm community started taking over the land and built shacks all around. Thereafter, there was violence between Black and Indian people including in 1985, the Phoenix Settlement and its school were burned down.[18] The church was also closed. New Farm, became Bhambayi, an area characterised by informal settlement.
In the democratic dispensation, in efforts to transform the heritage landscape, the Phoenix Settlement and Ohlange Institute[19] were opened as heritage sites. There is no mention of Mam’Ndlovu on both the sites. Additionally, the school at the Phoenix Settlement was re-opened as Kasturba Gandhi Primary School and its doors were opened to Black people for the first time. Less than 10 years ago, the church was reopened with now only a limited yard. At the church, there is an opportunity to have a plaque that recognises the role of Mam’Ndlovu. At the site of Othandweni, the Ndlovu family built some houses, and the land where sports fields were, was taken over by shack dwellers. Mam’Ndlovu played a significant role in developing the community and providing primary education which was limited and therefore much needed. She is still dear in the memories of people who were part of the New Farm community but there is room for greater recognition of the role that she played.
[1] African Proverb by James Aggrey
[2] The term amakholwa can be directly translated as ‘believers’. However, it has been used by historians to refer to a community of black Christian converts who focused on education and missionary work rather than on African traditions. This community represented the wider black community in politics and education and negotiated for better living conditions for black people. They were able to do so because they had learned the colonial language and way of life so had better access to spaces where colonists operated. Amakholwa believed that democracy could be achieved through education and passive resistance.
[3] Cibane is her maiden name, in the Nguni languages, when a woman is called by her maiden name, ‘ma’ is added.
[4] Mandy Cibane, interviewed by author, 12 April 2024.
[5] M. Cibane, interviewed by author, 12 April 2024.
[6] Heather Hughes ‘Politics and Society in Inanda, Natal: The Qadi under Chief Mqhawe, c1840-1906’ (PhD thesis, University of London, 1995), 49.
[7] H. Hughes, ‘Politics and Society in Inanda, Natal: The Qadi under Chief Mqhawe, c1840-1906’ (PhD thesis, University of London, 1995), 250.
[8] M. Cibane, 12 April 2024.
[9] Bongani, Mthembu, interviewed by author, 17 April 2024.
[10] B. Mthembu, interviewed by author, 17 April 2024.
[11] B. Mthembu, 17 April 2024.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] The violence was known as the Inanda riots, which ensured Indians left the area; their houses and shacks, there are not recorded fatalities. The riots were believed to be politically motivated.
[19] Ohlange High School became a government school but was not affected by the riots.