Silas Modiri Molema was a product of European medical education and his Tswana upbringing. The fusion of these two identities, which Molema identified with, caused him to be ambiguous in his early writings. He was struggling with reconciling the two parts within himself. The result of his struggle was Molema's great contributions to the intellectual world in South Africa . Molema was both politically and socially active. As an intellectual in his own right, Molema strived to incite motivation within the Natives of South Africa to take up the task which the founders of the African National Congress had begun. As a medical doctor, he strived to break the belief of the Natives in superstitious remedies in light of modern medicine.

While Molema was in Glasgow studying to become a doctor, he acquired new ideas that he will later incorporate into his work as an intellectual. Being educated gave him a sense of distinction from the African majority. As a result, Molema was making every effort to be more modern despite conservative Methodist teachings. His father's wealth paid for his education and gave his family entrance to the African bourgeoisie. This class was sandwiched between the white ruling class and the poor black majority. Education and “westernization” gave educated black Africans intellectual superiority over the uneducated working class. Studying at Lovedale was difficult because of its strict rules about adopting English behavior which forced black students to suppress their African roots. The structural ambiguity of education transferred over to Molema's writings. 1

His confusion about how to react toward those who did not have his race, education, economic standing, culture, and religion was reflected in his creation of The Bantu Past and Present in 1920. The Bantu Past and Present was the product of his confused identity. Solomon T. Plaatje was his mentor in history and had encouraged Molema to write the book. Molema attempts to encourage dialogue between Africans about race, power, land possession, and education by creating a fusion between the pre-colonization past with the colonization of present. It is a book of history and ethnography of black people in South Africa . He began to believe that individuals are victims of class powers beyond themselves. As President of African Races Association of Glasgow (ARA), Molema implemented dialogue amongst other men who are a part of the black diaspora by holding meetings where they could safely discuss issues of discrimination and prejudice. Meeting with these men, many who were slave-descendants, enabled him to expand his arguments about race beyond the boundaries of South Africa. 2

The ambiguity of the narrative mirrors Molema's own experience. He was torn between honoring his father with his Tswana traditions and honoring the woman he wished to marry who was outside tradition. Using “frank criticism” and “pride,” Molema produces a non-autobiographical “journey into the construction of self, although the need to explain the self and the subject position from which the narrative was created are stated in the introduction and implicitly throughout the text.” 3 As a result, Molema came to the conclusion that level of civilization, not race, should be the determining factor for class separation. He wanted to “assert his equality—regardless of race—with any other citizen of that empire.” 4

When he was studying to become a medical doctor, Molema volunteered at Lovedale Hospital under the supervision of Dr. Neil Macvicar. Dr. Macvicar trained Molema as a medical assistant, the highest position open to black South Africans. It is under his guidance that Molema developed his ideas about medicine. By rejecting Tswana healing he was able to view modern medicine as a replacement. Molema equated Tswana healing with the dregs of African society—the uncivilized. 5 These early beginnings lead to his future book, Life & Health .

In Life & Health , Molema deliberately wrote in such a manner that anyone with any reading ability would have no trouble understanding the text. His motive was to empower Natives to be able to read this book do that they will be better able to take care of themselves on their own. 6 In a sense, it was Molema's method of attack against traditional remedies. At the end of the book the section, Notes and Hints, sums up his purpose:

“Medicine is NOT the art of providing a remedy for each symptom of disease...When we come into the world deformed, defective or diseased, we have often our dear parents to thank for it. When by our carelessness we contract diseases which cripple or disable us, we should admire natural laws for their regularity. When you are ill, go straight to your doctor. Your neighbors may be experts in other matters, but your doctor knows about health and disease, so, having got his advice, stick to it against all other voices of advice...To close the doors and windows of your house and exclude light and fresh air is to close out life and health. it is suicide piecemeal. ‘Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise...Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish.' It is fondly assumed by many that young people should be told nothing about sexual dangers lest the telling corrupt their pure minds. When we were young, we acquired wrong education in these matters from wrong people, and had subsequently to revise our knowledge—often by painful experience. Are the young to-day any more exempt from such sources and stores of misinformation and pitfalls? Experience is often a wasteful teacher. Venereal disease recognises no limits of class or sex, station or religion, age or education. One thing only may limit it—abstinence, or purity. The big pox (syphilis) is a yawning, flaming, red-eyed death. The wise fly from it. Mothers, nurse your babies. Mother's milk is the baby's natural food, and it is the best of foods for it.” 7

Molema's diction is simple. He addresses many health issues by providing explanations on how to treat or prevent in terms that are easily understood. Molema is trying to educate the public through his book. Not only is he giving treatments, he's bringing up subjects that no one wants to address.

This energy to promote awareness is funneled to the African National Congress. Molema tries to motivate Africans to take action in his articles to The Bantu World. He uses powerful speech to accomplish this goal. Relying on newspapers was a good idea since many intellectuals were reading them. Molema challenges them to create change with their own power. He is ashamed that Africans are not actively incurring change: “It is the general feeling of many responsible and interested Africans that during the last few years there has been a regrettable deterioration in the content of the African National Congress—worsening in its discipline, lessening in its gravity, falling off in its dignity, general increase of levity, and frivolousness in its conferences. It has become almost a laughing-stock and a plaything whose discussions and deliberations are not entered upon with any serious thought, and therefore deserve little or no consideration.” 8

Molema clearly states his opinion of Europeans controlling their country: “Has not experience taught us, and History proved that when the white man laughs, the black man has to weep, when the foreigner sings for joy, the Native must lament.” 9 No good can come from Europeans taking advantage of Africans. The country should be run by its people, which would in turn strive to meet everyone's needs. He also brings up how people would feel after they realize what really is going on. Taking note that, “Always there is an incompleteness and a casualness about the Mayor's reception, giving it an air of informal formality,” 10 people start realizing that people in high positions don't take their jobs seriously. They have become all show and no action, “When you hear whispers and murmurs of inaccurate, unverifiable and inexplicable entries, and above all, when you find that no accredited accountant audits and passes the accounts, you receive a real shock, and your faith is badly shaken.” 11

Challenging all Africans, Molema accomplishes this by raising questions, “You wonder what actual need there is of an office like that of the Speaker when everybody is a speaker and a law unto himself. And you suddenly remember reading somewhere that the African is essentially a child and a mimic, and you wonder. Can that be true? The more outspoken and caustic of his critics say he is a parrot and a monkey. –Right or wrong?” 12 Molema then moves on to challenging intellectuals from the Kimberly Congress session of 1914. He introduces them as, “all the giants of our race...those stars of the first magnitude, and particular luminous constellations of the African firmament—President John L. Dube, Secretary Sol T. Plaatje, Saul Msane, Allen K Soga, Meshaek Pelem, Dr. W.B. Rubusana, Prince Malunga-ka-Mbadeni, Cleopas Kunene, Chief Joshua Molema, L.T. Mvabaza, S.M. Makgatho (the Lion of the North), D.S. Letanka, RichardW. Msimang, Selby Msimang, Thomas Mapikela, Chief W.Z. Fenyang, M. Bud-Mbelle, R.V. Selope Thema, J.M. Nyokong and many others—princes, chiefs, commoners, demagogues, pamphleteers, professional and business men from all over the Union and from the High Commission territories.” 13 It's interesting to note that Molema's mentor is one of these “giants.”

Later, Molema really nails the intellectuals whom he believes should be the leaders of the movement, “Are men moved by earnest thought and a passionate love to serve their kind?” 14 Many of the “giants” have passed away but there are still a few who are still around, “Can these few surviving fathers put their finger on the cause of this decadence? Can you for example, Father P. ka-Isaka Seme—father and founder of the ANC, Can you say why this child of yours is listless, ailing, anaemic, and emaciated? Or you, Citizen R.V. Selope Thema, Member of the second London-ward Deputation historiographer of the Congress and Speaker of the Congress of our day?” 15 Molema tries to point fingers in order to force action to happen.

In conclusion Molema presents a solution to the declining ANC, “But the immediate need is for all Africans to present a united front in opposing all illiberal and differential legislation, at first and as far as possible, by constitutional methods. We must work for racial solidarity and build up a rich legacy of race-consciousness, and therein due time, a way of deliverance will be revealed.” 16 He truly believed that unity and passion will get Africans to become more effective in their work to run their country.

As Molema continues to define his stance in the world, his views about Europeans have changed since the days of medical school. He is no longer disillusioned into believing that European values are holy and should be followed unconditionally. He is able to clearly state that Africans are still suffering at the hands of Europeans. At the 35 th Anniversary of the Mendi Memorial Service, he openly attacks the influence of Europeans on African culture. His audience included Europeans:

“This ceremony is in fact a solemn memorial service in honour of all those Africans who have gone out in recent times to try and purchase our freedom with their life blood. This day therefore is a unique and solemn day, a day of mingled emotions a day or revential feeling, of hero-worship and of joy and sorrow. It is as if we today re-inter the remains of them who perished 35 years ago; it is if today, we pronounce upon them those familiar and solemn words of committal—‘ashes to ashes and dust to dust.' But this is a day also of fervent determination and glorious hope that these same dead shall not die for ever and be forgotten, but that we shall fashion their spilt blood into a type of African, an intellectual and spiritual African. To the Europeans of South Africa, the Mendi Anniversary Celebrations must surely be something of reproach in that in spite of sacrifices in the cause of freedom, the African is today everywhere in chains and bondage. He is an orphan without food or freedom or education or land. He is a stranger in the land of his birth, a beggar and outcast from his home. The blood of his fathers and brothers seems to have been spilled in vain, now from fathomless depths of the sea and from the bowels of the earth, it cries out for recompense and fairplay, for goodwill for humanity and for emancipation.” 17

Silas Modiri Molema was a great human being. He tried to reconcile the conflict within him and finally reached an understanding that would help his fellow Africans. Molema used his education to reach out to his people, through medicine and politics. His books and articles made an essential contribution to the New African Movement. Traditions are put aside when modern medicine can prevent disease and cure illness. Africans are encouraged to take action and lead their country.

Genevieve Cheng is a junior at Pitzer College, a member of the Claremont Consortium. She is pursuing an English and World Literature major and intends to graduate in the spring of 2007.

Bibliographical Notes

1. Jane Starfield, “A Dance with the Empire: Modiri Molema's Glasgow Years, 1914-1921,” Journal of Southern African Studies , vol. XXVII no. 3, September 2001.

2. ibid

3. ibid

4. ibid

5. ibid

6. Anonymous, “ Life and Health by Dr. S. M. Molema, Author of The Bantu Past and Present ,” Ilanga lase Natal , July 26, 1924.

7. S. M. Molema, “ Life and Health ,” Lovedale Institution Press, Lovedale ( South Africa ), 1924, p.68-69.

8. S. M. Molema, “African National Congress,” The Bantu World , February 12, 1926 – March 12, 1949.

9. ibid

10. ibid

11. ibid

12. ibid

13. ibid

14. ibid

15. ibid

16. ibid

17. Anonymous, “Dr. Molema, Tells Gathering [of] Mendi Heroes,” The Bantu World, March 1, 1952.