Professor D. D. T. Jabavu occupies a very ambiguous position in South African intellectual and political history. Posterity has not as yet positioned him permanently in our cultural firmament. There are two possible reasons for this. First, is the very fact that he was the son of John Tengo Jabavu, a very prominent intellectual figure in the pre-New African Movement era and a  shamelessly an unrepentant political reactionary. Second, by founding and being the only president of the All African Convention, he seems to have been covertly hostile to the African National Congress, an organization his father attempted to destroy at the moment of its founding in 1912. Despite this, because D. D. T. Jabavu exemplified some of the great qualities of modernity, educated in England, had the most extensive list of published writings, fluent in Latin and Greek, visited Tuskegee Institute to do research on its philosophy of education, in his relationship with Max Yergan exemplified the paragon of the interaction between a New Negro intellectual and a New African intellectual, and in teaching African languages at Fort Hare College was at the center of the dialectic between modernity and tradition, he was held in high esteem by many major New African intellectuals. On the occasion of his retirement from Fort Hare in 1944, Jordan Kush Ngubane wrote the following in an Editorial in Inkundla ya Bantu: "Men like Professor Jabavu are beacons by which the nation can tell the progress it has made on its way to full citizenship. Born in 1885, he studied in Europe after the Boer War to return to this country about 1914. He found a South Africa where, the African in particular was hedged in with a series of oppressive and discriminatory laws. Professor Jabavu was not the man to be frightened by these nor by the violent political atmospheres that threatened to block the African's way to full citizenship. He immediately found his place in the vanguard of his people's fight for freedom and took a leading role in the long controversy that finally ended among other things, in the establishment of the South African Native College [Fort Hare]. When called upon to prove that Education was no 'poison' to the African, Professor Jabavu readily accepted appointment as lecturer in four subjects at Fort Hare and worked himself almost to the bone to see Fort Hare the success that he wanted it to be. . . . He belonged to an age when an educated African  was looked upon as an all-rounder leader. . . . In the brief period from 1918 to 1936 he personally organised or took part in the formation of about a dozen African organisations. This is a record for any African leader" (November 17, 1944). When Jabavu passed away, in another Editorial in another newspaper, Ngubane reflected: "In placing on record our condolences with his family, we should like to emphasise that in many ways his was a very unique role in the history of African education. . . . In that capacity he produced an unbroken stream of men and women whom he influenced directly and very many of whom occupy positions of responsibility and very many of whom also have made distinguished contributions to the growth of South Africa. . . . But not even this [political activities] exhausted the energies of this remarkable man. He still had time to travel extensively whenever he could and to write, in addition. Thus, in mourning his death, we believe the Africans feel also that he has left behind achievements from which future generations will rightly derive rich inspiration" ("Professor Jabavu", Indian Opinion, August 7, 1959). It is interesting to contrast this view of Ngubane's, with that H. I. E. Dhlomo who was also commenting on the retirement of Jabavu, but was not so laudatory and adulative: "Dignified, genial, a good mixer, a humorous speaker, he was at home with [the] high and low, young and old. Prof. Jabavu was an excellent speaker and a fine writer and journalist. He wrote several books both in Xhosa and in English---The Black Problem, The Segregation Fallacy, The Life of Tengo Jabavu, and his travel books being the best known. His pamphlet on Bantu Literature was a poineer effort on the subject. . . . He addressed numerous audiences all over the country and abroad on African Affairs, and was a Vice-President of the Institute of Race Relations. Prof Jabavu played the piano well, and was a fine violinist and conductor" ("Prof. D. D. T. Jabavu", Ilanga lase Natal, November 4, 1944). In comparison to the great obituaries of Solomon T. Plaatje and S. E. K. Mqhayi, respectively writeen by Dhlomo in 1932 and in 1945, these words have more to do with saluting a senior New African colleague than paying homage to a great intellect. Perhaps Dhlomo was unconsciously expressing his deep conviction that creative writers were endowed with greater intellect than scholars. Dr. William Frederick Nkomo (co-written with G. Soya Mama), the first interim leader of the ANC Youth League at its founding in 1944 and subsequently replaced by the elected Anton Lembede, in an appraisal for the Drum magazine's Masterpiece in Bronze series emphasized his artistic inclinations: "'Jili's' interest in the fine arts has placed him in the company of leading musicians, with a keen appreciation for the works of great composers. He had the opportunity in 1947 to conduct the combined (1,000 voices) institutions choir at Lovedale for the reception of His Majesty the late King George VI. This earned him His Majesty's personal gratitude and a warm handshake. it was the greatest event in the history of African choirs and music" ("Prof. 'Jili' Jabavu", November 1952). The most and fascinating viewpoint on Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu is that of Z. K. Matthews, who had been his student at Fort Hare in the early 1920s and succeeded him in his Chair in 1944. Matthews shows a different personality: "He took an active part in the running of student societies before their conduct was assumed by the Student representative Council. . . . But Jabavu did not content himself with the cloistered life of a university teacher living in a sheltered community. He entered fully into the public life of the country and served the African people in many directions. With a keen interest in agricultural development, he preached the gospel of better farming methods in the Reserves and founded African Farmers Association long before our modern rehabilitation schemes were heard of. . . . As a man, Jabavu was essentially a man of peace. He impressed all who came into contact with him with his essential humanity, his cvheerful disposition, his genial personality and his readiness to appreciate the other man's point of view" ("Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu", Imvo Zabantsundu, June 17, 1961). With his perspective, Z. K. Matthews gives a more rounded perspective of D. D. T. Jabavu. The appearance of Catherine Higgs' critical study (The Ghost of Equality: The Public Lives of D. D. T. Jabavu of South Africa, 1885-1959, Mayibuye Books, Cape Town, 1997) last year, is perhaps a signal that a serious re-appraisal of his legacy is long overdue.