Charlotte Maxeke

Charlotte Maxeke (7 April 1871 - 16 October 1939) was a South African religious leader, social worker and political activist. She was born at Ramokgopa in Polokwane District (then Pietersburg District), Limpopo, and died at the age of 68 in Johannesburg.

As young women, both Mannya sisters were members of an African choir that toured England 1891 - 1893 and performed for Queen Victoria. In 1894 Charlotte Mannya joined a choir that went on tour to Canada and the United States and was offered a scholarship to study at Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio. While at Wilberforce she met and later married Marshall Maxeke. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1901, becoming the first black South African woman to receive a college degree. She and her husband returned to South Africa and founded the Wilberforce Institute.

Charlotte became active in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in which she played a part in bringing to South Africa. The church later elected her president of the Women's Missionary Society. By 1919 she was active in the anti-pass laws demonstrating which led her to found the Bantu Women's League which later became part of the African National Congress Women's League.

Maxeke's name has been given to the former "Johannesburg General Hospital" which is now known as the "Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital". The South African Navy submarine SAS Charlotte Maxeke was named after her.

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