Z. K. Matthews

Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews was born on October 20, 1901, in Kimberley. In 1923, he became the first Black African to earn a Bachelor of Arts from the South African Native College (Fort Hare), later earning an LLB and an MA from Yale University and studying under Bronislaw Malinowski at the London School of Economics.

As Professor of African Studies and acting principal of Fort Hare, Matthews mentored Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Seretse Khama, and Robert Mugabe. In August 1953, in his presidential address to the Cape ANC, Matthews proposed convening a national 'Congress of the People' to draft a charter of democratic freedom—the direct origin of the 1955 Freedom Charter. Arrested in the 1956 Treason Trial, he later served as Botswana's Ambassador to the US and UN.