Discovering Noni Jabavu

One of the treasures of going back to university must be the licence to read and discover as much as I could without feeling like I wasn't working. Taking the African non-fiction literature course was like going back to learn history the way the apartheid government tried to stop us from learning. History has always been recorded by those who had the money and power to commission paintings, tapestries, maps and books which filled libraries and museums. It was Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian writer, who said that "until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter". 

One author who I was excited to discover during the course was Noni Jabavu. Our course reader included an extract from her book, Drawn in Colour. I was so taken with the memoir of the first 'black' South African woman to publish a book (in 1960) that I tracked down the out-of-print book and her second, The Ochre People, at Clarke's Bookshop in the centre of Cape Town (established in 1956).

I had never heard of this writer whose book had been reprinted five times in the first year of its publication and had been translated into Italian in 1961 and reprinted in New York in 1962. She was one of the first successful female African writers and journalists, becoming a weekly columnist for the Daily Dispatch (under the editorship of Donald Woods) and a presenter and producer for the BBC. It would take 20 years before the book was published in SA.

Noni Jabavu was born in Eastern Cape to Professor Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu, the first 'black' professor at the University of Fort Hare, and Thandiswa Florence Makiwane, the founder of Zenzele Woman's Self-Improvement Association. Her aunt, Cecilia Makiwane, was the first registered professional 'black' nurse in SA. Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in the Eastern Cape was named after her.

Her grandfather, John Tengo Jabavu, was a founding member of the SA Native College, later renamed University of Fort Hare and became the editor of the first 'black'-owned newspaper in 1884.

At the age of 14 she was sent to live with friends in England to be educated. She later married and settled there but travelled and lived in Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe). The Ochre People is the story of her trip back to visit her family in 1955. The book offers "scenes of a South African life" (the sub-title) that challenges the images of 'black' South Africans the apartheid government tried so hard to propagate and ensure by keeping us separate. Having lived in the UK, Jabavu looks at the tribal customs and traditions with sensitivity and respect and paints portraits of a rich culture and family life  that I was delighted to see through her eyes.

Her recollections of the daily lives of ordinary humans, who just happened to have been born with a darker hue to their skin, make these memoirs a valuable addition to the stories of where we come from and who we are. Historical narratives are important, but not necessarily written by historians. It is the writer's voice which brings our history to life. Telling our stories is something we have to do so that the story of the hunt will also reflect our pain and our courage.

See also Celebrating Africa
http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/helen-nontando-noni-jabavu
Picture of the author from the bid-or-buy website.