PIXLEY KA ISAKA SEME

Pixley ka Isaka Seme 

by

Jordan Ngubane

The death of Dr. P. ka I. Seme has removed from among us one man whose stature will grow tremendously as the years go by and whom future historians of our race will regard as the greatest African of the first fifty years of the twentieth century—if not of the century as a whole. For it is to the vision of Dr. Seme that we are indebted for the unity of the African people.

As a young man he was trained in some of the leading universities of Britain and America . He returned to South Africa to be among the pioneers our race produced to enter the legal profession. His name as a lawyer features in many pages of our history within the last forty years and perhaps one day the world will be told the full story of the part he played in this field.

It is to Dr. Seme as a nation-builder that we shall devote our attention in this article.

Dr. Seme returned to South African when the white people were well on the way to creating the Union of South Africa. To his clear mind it readily dawned that this unity would bring both good and evil to the African people.

By coming together, the white people would be in the position to oppress jointly the man of colour in Southern Africa . Dr. Seme never had any doubt in his mind about the fact that once unity of the white races had been achieved, the so-called liberalism of the British would go under and in its place would stand the slave-mentality of the descendants of the Dutch settlers. This, in his view, was an unmitigated evil.

On the other hand, white unity opened up new hope in his heart. Dr. Seme had been brought up in the strict conservation of the Zulus and to him there were very many things in the Zulu way of life he held dear. So much so that he even married a member of the Zulu royal house. From ancient time the Zulus had preached that the salvation of the African people lay in their coming together to build up an invincible empire. This dream did not go up in flames when Cetshwayo's capital was reduced to ashes by the British in 1879. It remained in the hearts of very many young Zulu Africans. One of these was Dr. Seme.

The formation of the Union of South Africa held out hope that one day the Xhosa, the Basuto, the Zulus, the Swazis, etc. would have to obey one law and would have to bear one yoke. In the travail that was to come upon all the people, Dr. Seme saw the seeds of the national unity which was dear to him as the unity which, he was convinced, would one day establish the African as a free man in the land of his birth.

He burned to impart his vision to his countrymen. He issued the now famous clarion call— Inblabamkhosi ka 1912—in which he invited the leaders and representatives of the African people to meet at Bloemfontein to enable the people of Africa to see how best they could meet the challenges presented by the unity of the white people.

At that historic conference every African group of consequence was represented. Dr. Seme laid before the representatives of our people the dangers into which we as a people had been thrust. He went father; he outlined his vision of the new Africa that would grow out of the travail which awaited them. The people saw the vision and in a moment of unparalleled greatness took one of the most epoch-making decisions ever taken in Africa .

They agreed to cease to be narrowly nationalistic; that is, they ceased to be narrowly Zulu or Xhosa or Sotho. They set their eyes on a new star. They buried the rivalries, jealousies and quarrels of the past and emerged from the conference a new people—the African People. History records few occasions when new nations were created so quickly and without bloodshed. That event marked a turning point in the history of South Africa . It was a bloodless revolution and the driving power behind it was none other than the quietly spoken and shy Dr. Seme.

When we describe him as the father of the African People: as the architect of United Africa, we are only giving honour where honour is due.

His vision inflamed the imagination of millions in every part of the country. The depth of the impression the historic conference made can be gauged by the victories which the ideal of United Africa was won. The first of these was won inside the 1912 conference hall—when the Africans decided to bring into being the African National Congress which would speak for them as a whole.

The second was recorded within the first ten years of the Bloemfontein Conference. A new faith in things African made itself felt among our people. This gave impetus to the separatist movement in the Christian Church. People who had confidence in the New Africa broke away from white domination in mixed Churches and set up religious sects of their own. Some of these movements grew from strength and today are the best tribute to the decisions of the 1912 conference.

Since then the ideal of a United Africa has become a living reality. We are one people in joy and sorrow; we are one people in the hour of travail and we shall ever be one until the final victory. And for this we are largely indebted to the late Dr. Seme.

When we talk of a united people, there are those in our community who regard the whole idea with scorn. “It is alright for people to talk of national unity,” they say. “But what of the Zulus who will club together against a Mosotho or a Xhosa? What of the Xhosas who will stand together to make life impossible for a Zulu or a Mosotho? What of the Basuto who will consider nothing mean in creating difficulties for a Zulu or a Xhosa?”

Those of us who believe in the concept of a United Africa are not blind men; we are not blind idealists. We believe, first, that the ideal to whose realization we are devoting our lives is the highest good to which we can give our lives. It is the highest good because it will ensure that the personality of the man and woman of Africa will not be desecrated indefinitely. It is the only guarantee that man, in Africa , will one day emerge free and dignified to make his own distinctive contribution to the progress and happiness of humanity as a whole.

Great ideals do not triumph in a day. Great ideals demand sacrifice and most human beings do not like the uphill way. They do not like suffering, not even when it will bring about their own liberation. The Bible records that the Israelites turned against Moses and asked him to lead them back to the fleshpots of Egypt ; back to slavery, when he marched in front of them to the land of Promise . In like manner, when Dr. Seme pointed the way to a Free Africa, there were the timid and the cynical; the week-kneed and the faint-hearted who saw no good ceasing to be good, warlike and conservative Zulus in favour of a new-fangled national-consciousness. These people existed among the Xhosas as well; people to whom being a Xhosa, though in slavery was greater than being an African; a free man. The same can be said of the Basutos and of every African group.

But when judging the greatness of a people, we do not turn to these groups. We turn to men of vision; the nation builders; the truly great for whom Justice and Truth and Liberty are things more precious than life itself. People like the late Dr. Seme.

Even among us, there are many who balk at the idea of being but small, almost insignificant parts of a greater whole. They lose their prominence in the greater world of the United Africa. They would rather see themselves entrenched as little idols in the smaller worlds of the narrowly Zulu or Xhosa or Suto. They are the men who hanker after the fleshpots of the old times; of the times when our ancestors fought and distrusted each other and in that way lost their liberty and their land; and in that way sold us into slavery.

But happily for us—as has always been the case in history—these people are in the minority. The Zulus who will club together to do down a Xhosa because he is a Xhosa; the Basuto who will destroy a Zulu because he is a Zulu; the Xhosas who will make life unpleasant for Mosotho because he is Mosotho; in short the small minded tribalist who will destroy an African because he does not belong to their narrowly tribal kraal—all these people are now in the minority; they are a dying race.

The great majority of the Zulus, the Xhosas, the Basuto and others have joined the marching caravan of humanity to the goal of a Free Africa. They have seen the vision placed before them by the late Dr. Seme and because they are decent men and women who harbour no selfish motives in their bosoms, they will attain the ideal set before them by one of their greatest sons. The small-minded and the tribalistic will be with us until we are a free people. They were with Dr. Seme when he made his clarion call. We should not in any way allow them to weaken our side. For what they do weakens us and strengthens our enemies.

It is a comforting thought to remember that Dr. Seme died having seen for himself the gigantic and eternal monument which he had unconsciously built for himself. What is more, he died having seen the Youth of his race opening up new fields of service and accepting new challenges to bring nearer realization the goal to which he remained devoted throughout his eventful life.

As the years passed away, Dr. Seme will emerge as the greatest hero of the African people. Men and women will tell their children over and over again of the great Bloemfontein Conference of 1912 and of the shy man behind it—Dr. Seme. The children too, will pass on the story to their descendants and by day and by night they will not be afraid to struggle; to suffer; to be persecuted; to be humiliated; to starve and even to be killed to keep aglow the torch Dr. Seme lit and to bring nearer realization the ideal he set before the great African People! Let us honour his name to the end of time! Mayibuye i Africa !

“Dr. Pixley ka Isaka Seme: A Tribute”, Inkundla ya Bantu , Saturday, July 30 th , 1951.