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By Johnathan Paoli
Higher Education and Training Minister Nobuhle Nkabane has urged institutions of higher learning across South Africa to integrate Charlotte Mannya-Maxeke’s legacy beyond ceremonial gestures.
“Yes, her name deserves to grace our buildings, but more than that, her values must shape our institutions. Let us embed her legacy in our leadership programmes, our curriculum, and our approach to community development,” said Clarence Tshitereke, Nkabane’s advisor, who delivered a speech on her behalf.
He was speaking during the “Finding the Forgotten Graduate” Lecture hosted at The Innovation Hub in Tshwane, marking the countdown to the 125th anniversary of Maxeke’s groundbreaking university graduation.
The event not only launched the official countdown to the 125th anniversary of Charlotte Maxeke’s graduation but also ignited urgent reflection on justice, historical erasure and access in South African higher education.
Hosted in partnership with the Charlotte Mannya Maxeke Institute (CMMI), the lecture commemorated the legacy of Maxeke, the first Black South African woman to graduate with a university degree, a BSc, from Wilberforce University in Ohio, USA, on 20 June 1901.
“Too often we try to locate Maxeke within regional narratives of the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Johannesburg, but she transcends borders. Her life intersected with giants like Dr W.E.B. du Bois, and her leadership inspired generations long before today’s terms like Pan-Africanism or social justice became academic language,” Tshitereke said.
Framed around the theme of intellectual reclamation, the lecture posed a powerful question to the nation: How do we confront the historical erasure of Black academic excellence and reimagine a higher education landscape rooted in equity, memory and justice?
Tshitereke emphasised that the lecture was not merely ceremonial but a “national act of memory, legacy and renewal.”
The address set the tone for a series of academic and policy events to follow as South Africa commemorates Maxeke’s graduation anniversary as a milestone now tethered to broader conversations around curriculum transformation, institutional legacy and student inclusion.
The event included the unveiling of the Finding the Forgotten Graduate exhibition, a multi-award-winning digital storytelling campaign that resurrects the erased histories of early Black graduates in South Africa.
Developed by a cross-disciplinary team over 20 months, the project has already reached more than 4.5 million people and serves as a catalyst for critical conversations about legacy and belonging in South African universities.
“These were the first doctors, the first poets, the first lawyers, people like Zainunnisa Gool, Harold Cressy and Khayrunnisa Attaullah. Their names do not appear enough in our textbooks. Today, we say: we will not forget,” Tshitereke said.
Key among the initiatives launched was the Girls’ School of Excellence and the AgriCity Integrated Development Initiative, spearheaded by the department and the CMMI.
Tshitereke explained that these projects were not ceremonial, but transformational; adding that they merged education with economic inclusion, environmental justice and youth empowerment in the spirit of Maxeke.
African National Congress treasurer general Gwen Ramokgopa, who represented Maxeke’s home region of Botlokwa, reminded the audience that Maxeke was “a child of many places, but a woman of one vision — upliftment through education”.
The lecture also reminded the audience of Maxeke’s internationalist identity.
The evening featured a moving reading by acclaimed journalist and author Zubeida Jaffer from her biography Being Charlotte.
Other key speakers included Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya, who delivered the official welcome address, and mutual financial services company PPS for Professionals’ executive Ayanda Seboni, who outlined the origins of the Forgotten Graduate campaign.
The minister’s advisor also used the occasion to spotlight the growing disjunction between tertiary education and employment, describing graduate unemployment as a national crisis.
“Young people are completing degrees, but many cannot find work. This disconnection between learning and livelihoods demands a response — one aligned with Charlotte Maxeke’s belief that education was a tool for community upliftment,” Tshitereke said.
The evening included a panel discussion moderated by lecture director Musawenkosi Saurombe.
Panellists included vice-chancellors from leading South African universities, as well as creatives, historians, and student leaders.
The discussion centered on the transformation of institutional memory and the urgent need for a higher education system that reflects South Africa’s full historical truth.
Tshitereke issued a call to action to all institutions of higher learning.
“Let every student know that this country’s first Black female graduate was not just a student, she was a Pan-Africanist, a theologian, an activist, and an intellectual long before these words were popularised. Let her be the measure. Let her be the mirror,” he said.
He described the lecture as a national moment of reckoning, remembrance and renewal.
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