In contrast with the major figures who founded the Native Educational Association in 1879, such as Elijah Makiwane, Pambani J. Mzimba, William Gqoba, John Tengo Jabavu and Walter B. Rubusana, who seem not have been historically conscious of intellectual lineages at the moment of formation of incepient modernity in South Africa, Isaiah Bud-M'Belle seems to have felt the historical necessity of such a recognition. Whereas the King Williamstown-East London circle of Xhosa intellectuals seems not have given a recognizably public cognisance to their great predecessor, Tiyo Soga, Bud-M'Belle seems to have recognized that the intellectual conditions of possibility that his coming into being possible, were made possible by his immediate predecessors, the intellectual circle around the Native Educational Association. This is perhaps the reason why his book, Kafir Scholar's Companion (1903) was dedicated to John Tengo Jabavu for having founded Imvo Zabantsundu in 1884. By this dedication, Isaac Bud M'Belle seems to have recognized the importance of newspapers in giving forums to the new intellectuals of modernity. Hence, a short chapter in his book pays homage to the history of African newspapers from Imvo Zabantsundu and F. Z. S. Peregrino's South African Spectator  through Mark S Radebe's Ipepa lo Hlango to Solomon T. Plaatje's Koranta ea Becoana and Allan Kirkland Soga's Izwi Labantu. These newspaper were a central part in the making of the intellectual culture of modernity. Because of this awareness, Solomon T. Plaatje felt assured when he left his newspaper, Tsala ea Batho, in the editorial hands of Bud M'belle, on the occasion of his being a part of the ANC (then the South African Native Native congress) delegation (together with Thomas Mapikela, Walter Rubusana, John Dube and Saul Msane)  to London in 1914 to request the British Parliament to repeal the Native Lands Act of the same year. Unfortunately, Plaatje's brother-in-law was unable to maintain the publication of Tsala ea Batho during his long stay in Britain and United States. Both these newspaper ventures of Solomon T. plaatje had been partly financed by Chief Silas Molema of the Barolong. It is important to indicate that the sustenance of both Koranta ea Becoana and Tsala ea Batho was made possible by the New African intellectuals around the Kimberley-Mafikeng axis, which included among others, beside the two aforementioned, Dr. Silas Modiri Molema and others. This axis was followed decades later by a constelattion of intellectuals based in Durban around Ilanga lase Natal: H. I. E. Dhlomo, Jordan K. Ngubane, Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, Josiah Mapumulo and others. A cultural construction of the history of South African modernity through these cities and with these intellectual, would be very fascinating indeed. From King Williamstown in the 1880s through Mafikeng in the 1920s to Durban in the 1940s, a cultural splay of splendid richness would be revealed. Bud M'Belle's Kafir Scholar's Companion would be a wonderful companion for such a searching intellectual journey.