JORDAN K. NGUBANE

Jordan Ngubane

by

Peter Mda

Mr. Ngubane, a political constable at Ladysmith, had planned a legal career for his son, Jordan K. Ngubane. But even he did not guess that little Jordan would rise and become a front-ranking journalist, a thinker, a political analyst and a scholar.

Jordan K. Ngubane was born at Nkwebebe near Ladysmith on November 15, 1917. In his early days he led an isolated and sheltered life. That perhaps accounts for the fact that J. K. (as his friends call him) has never been “a man of the masses” despite the tremendous impact of his thought on the politics of the time.

HE received his early education at Ladysmith, doing his standard six at the Forbes Street Intermediate School. Then he proceeded to Adams College to further his education. He entered the College together with Lembede in 1933. Lembede being in the Training College whilst J. K. was in the High School. Many of his fellow students thought J. K. would be a future leader.

Whilst doing, his final Matric he studied journalism privately. His contributions in the Ilanga lase Natal attracted the attention of the late Dr. J. L. Dube who sent Mr. Ngazana Luthuli, the then editor of Ilanga, to interview him at Adams and subsequently to invite him to join the editorial staff of that paper. This was in 1938 after completing his matriculation. J. K. started as assistant editor of the Ilanga lase Natal. In 1943 he went up to Johannesburg to become an assistant editor of The Bantu World. Incidentally, Anton Lembede arrived in Johannesburg the same year to serve articles under the late Dr. P. Ka Isaka Seme. Here hey met the men who were to figure prominently in the history of the Congress Youth League, namely Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, A. P. Mda, William Nkomo, Lionel [Mxolisi] Majombozi and others.

The same year Mr. Jordan K. Ngubane married staff nurse Eleanor Madondo of Impene, Natal. Early in 1944 he took part in the formation of the Congress Youth League, and the same year he returned to Natal where he became full time editor of Inkundla ya Bantu published at Verulam.

J. K. imperilled his life when he worked against heavy odds to improve the quality and circulation of Inkundla. Unluckily he contracted asthma in 1945, and his good wife, Eleanor, showed heroic virtue in sustaining his delicate life in those tragic days. From 1948 to 1951 he wasat Rosetta recuperating.

Already as assistant editor of Ilanga, J. K. had shown great promise as a writer. His column in Ilanga where he wrote under the nom-de-plume “Jo the Cow” showed his wide reading as well as his rapid development to intellectual maturity. But the flowering of his journalistic genius was to come with the rise of Inkundla ya Bantu. Here he yielded a power which profoundly affected the trend of political history, not only in Natal and the Transvaal, but also throughout South Africa. Once he came out openly in support of African Nationalism, the triumph of that outlook was assured, and it is common knowledge that the emergence of African Nationalism altered the complexion of politics in South Africa.

J. K. has done some extensive research into old African poetry and into the works of certain ancient Zulu poets. In his Seven Cannons of Zulu Poetry he develops some striking theories, richly illustrated.

His hypothesis particularly on the “gap question” in old Zulu poetical forms is in advance of anything even the late Dr. B. W. Vilakazi put forward on the subject. In this connection J. K. has compiled a manuscript which is ready for publication. Not only is he a research student, he is [also] a writer of promise. Only last year his play Night Over Carthage won third prize at the Wits Festival of Arts, whilst his book, The Zulus Were My Beat, a work largely autobiographical, is now being considered for publication in America.

The arrival of both “Lembs” [Anton Lembede] and J. K. in the Golden City coincided with the formation of the Congress Youth League. They worked jointly at the manifesto of the Congress Youth League. The African Democratic Party, a new body led by Paul Mosaka, had been formed late in 1943. It came out on a plank of militancy, and its virulent attacks put the Congress leadership on the defensive, whilst the Congress as a body was threatened with internal dissensions. J. K. entered the political fray with dramatic suddenness. Writing in Inkundla as “Kanyisa” [Enlightener] and “Twana” [Junior], he dealt one devastating blow after another at the African Democratic Party, put the party on the run, and finally wrote it off the political map of South Africa. Meanwhile he boosted up the Xuma leadership whose nation building and centralisation policies he supported unstintingly. His return to Natal in 1944 heralded a big political ferment there.

Within a comparatively short time he converted Natal from the insular policy of Dr. Dube and Mr. Champion and helped to put Natal within the fold of one National Congress. He brought African Nationalism as propounded by the C. Y. L. [Congress Youth League] to Natal, and was largely responsible for bringing about Champion’s downfall. Incidentally, he persuaded the League’s leaders to support Chief Luthuli instead.

There is no doubt that J. K. is a thinker of formidable range. Whilst it would not be correct arbitrarily to allot a fixed place for him on the philosophical scale, nevertheless it is possible to indicate the direction of his philosophical development. His position strikes me as being that of a thinker who seeks an ideal in an environment of grim and ugly reality.

Nevertheless, he seeks a philosophy of life capable of uniting and freeing all the diverse peoples and race groups in South Africa. He sees Liberalism (philosophical and political) as the answer to the situation. What he understands by Liberalism may not be what you understand by it; for J. K. is an eclectic, and he does not, it appears to me, accept all the ultimate conclusions and assumptions and presumptions of Liberalism. Again, whilst he admires the Marxist ideal of a classless society in which exploitation of man by man will be ended, he nevertheless abhors some of the revolutionary practices and methods of achieving the ideal.

J. K. is just an African---simple, natural, modest and intelligent. He makes friendships easily and has a limitless capacity for keeping them. He is plain and straight forward, hates subterfuge and humbug. In a nutshell, J. K. can be said to be a true son of Africa.

From: Drum, July 1954.