University College of Fort Hare
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| Motto | In lumine tuo videbimus lumen ("In your light we shall see the light") |
|---|---|
| Type | Public university |
| Established | 1916 |
| Chancellor | Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza |
| Vice-Chancellor | Sakhela Buhlungu |
| Students | 13,331 (2015) |
| Location |
Main campus: Alice Other: Bhisho East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa Coordinates: 32°47′13.4″S 26°50′56.7″E / 32.787056°S 26.849083°E |
| Website | http://www.ufh.ac.za/ |
The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
It was a key institution of higher education for black Africans from 1916 to 1959. It offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub-Saharan Africa, creating a black African elite. Fort Hare alumni were part of many subsequent independence movements and governments of newly independent African countries.
In 1959, the university was subsumed by the apartheid system, but it is now part of South Africa's post-apartheid public higher education system.
Originally, Fort Hare was a British fort in the wars between British settlers and the Xhosa of the 19th century. Some of the ruins of the fort are still visible today, as well as graves of some of the British soldiers who died while on duty there.
During the 1830s, the Lovedale Missionary Institute was built near Fort Hare.James Stewart, one of its missionary principals, suggested in 1878 that an institution for higher education of black students needed to be created. However, he did not live to see his idea created into reality when, in 1916, Fort Hare was established with Alexander Kerr as its first principal. D.D.T Jabavu was its first black staff member who lectured in Latin and black languages. In accord with its Christian principles, fees were low and heavily subsidised. Several scholarships were also available for indigent students.
Fort Hare had many associations over the years before it became a university in its own right. It was initially the South African Native College attached to the University of South Africa. Then as the University College of Fort Hare associated with Rhodes University. In 1959, with the passing of the Promotion of Bantu Self Government Act, higher educational institutions would be strictly segregated along racial lines and saw Fort Hare becoming a black university in its own right in 1970, strictly controlled by the state government.
It was a key institution in higher education for black Africans from 1916 to 1959. It offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub-Saharan Africa, creating a black African elite. Fort Hare alumni were part of many subsequent independence movements and governments of newly independent African countries.
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