Aubrey Mokoape
| Aubrey Mokoape | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Maitshwe Nchaupe Aubrey Mokoape 6 September 1944 Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Occupation | Doctor, anti-apartheid activist, former leader of the black consciousness movement and south african student organisation |
| Years active | 2003–present |
Dr. Maitshwe Nchuape Aubrey Mokoape (born 6 September 1944) was also known as a political anti-apartheid activist and a former leader of the Pan-African Congress and Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. He was first arrested and detained at the age of 15.He studied and worked alongside political anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. who was a founder and was elected president of the Black Consciousness Movement. In post apartheid South Africa he is now known as a physician and a soldier in the struggle for freedom.
Aubrey Mokoape was born in Johannesburg, South Africa where he grew up as a child but later moved to [Pretoria] with his family. Aubrey and his family lived in a Johannesburg location in a building that only workers lived in. He has three siblings, Walter, George, Keith and Barbara. His father worked for an old trading company known as the Elephant Trading Company. He worked as a dispatch clerk but before this he worked as a teacher. Mokoape's father was transferred to Pretoria and so was the rest of his family and this is where Mokoape partly grew up. He studied through bantu education at an elite Johannesburg high school, in one of the locations, known as Orlando High School. His years in Orlando high school were prominent due to the high level of political activity. He later studied to be a doctor at the University of Natal.
In 1948 Bantu education was introduced and in 1955 he and a few others, were the first to study under Bantu education however during this time pass laws were reinforced and were a lot stricter than before. There was a lot of political agitation at this time. In 1957 most of the workers in the location were asked to move out of the building and were allocated to Soweto and Mokoape and his family were asked to move out of the building and relocate to Soweto. Mokoape's 'political baptism' (as he calls it) happened for him during the Pebco bus strike and this was the first political activity he took part in. This was one of the first and popular strikes to occur since buses were boycotted and student were forced to walk 7–8 kilometres to school.
His high school was a highly politicised high school where he also met senior leaders of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). They held meetings and discussions about political issues during school hours as they were a Pan Africanist school. Mokoape was the vocal student among his peers and was one of the leaders in the school. In 1958 and 1959 at the ages of 14 and 15 Mokoape had become a well known political voice in the school. He also had the privilege of being around figures such as Robert Sobukwe. Mokoape was influenced by his neighbours, his peers and his father in becoming an Africanist and was around during the formation of the PAC was being.
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