By Zubeida Jaffer
In Youth Month, Number10Publishers with the company 27FOUR and the Charlotte Mannya Maxeke Institute (CMMI) launched my latest book, Becoming Charlotte, in Johannesburg and Pretoria. At both events, I asked the audience to take a close look at the book cover that my daughter Ruschka designed. (See the cover above.) The bird depicts our country’s national bird, Indwe as it is known in isiZulu and isiXhosa, Blue Crane in English, mogolodi in Sepedi, bloukraansvoel in Afrikaans to mention a few of our languages. In the indigenous |Xam language, female Blue Cranes are called !k’o aiti, while males are referred to as !k’o gwai. According to |Xam oral history and legends, the Blue Crane is considered a person of the First Bushmen and the sister of the praying mantis, |kaggen. is known.
Indwe features in this story, which imaginatively weaves the tale of 12-year-old Charlotte’s efforts against great odds to become our country’s first indigenous female graduate. The bird’s feather, tucked into her suitcase when she travels to the United Kingdom, appears as a symbol of bravery, dignity, and elegance.
Indwe is often viewed as a messenger between the physical and spiritual realms. In our country, there is a strong belief that when the bird enters your life as a spirit teacher, it signifies that you should draw strength from your past to navigate the present.
Charlotte was a young woman of faith and like a bird she flew towards her destiny.
As we stand on the cusp of a Third World War, let us draw strength from her story and face our challenges bravely as she did hers.
We cannot ignore the fact that we are at a very difficult moment in history. There is a madness at play in the world that few of us can easily make sense of.
In the hope that full-blown war will not happen, we continue our work to build a just and fair South Africa. Perhaps as we do this, we can steady our hearts and grow the peace and joy that we all long for.
Growing inspiring stories of courage is one way to calm the mind and keep us rooted in the present.
Let’s pause and consider what one family through one woman has bequeathed us.
Charlotte Mannya Maxeke died on 16 October 1939, barely six weeks into the Second World War that started on 1 September 1939. By the time the war ended after five years, humanity believed it had defeated Nazism.
But the Nazi philosophy of racial superiority had already slipped from Europe and landed in South Africa bringing Apartheid into our lives in 1948. It pushed back the educational advances of the African child. It did not only do that but wiped from national memory the story of some of our leading visionaries. Instead, we were taught the stories of Jan Van Riebeeck and other colonialists. The time before the colonists arrived became non-existent.
Somewhere deep in the family and church of Mam Charlotte, her story continued to pulsate. Then in 1996 came Margaret McCord’s The Calling of Katie Makanya, a book which recorded a vast amount of detail about Charlotte alongside her sister Katie, taking the story beyond the family yet still limited in reach. In 2012, Dr Thozama April completed her PHD thesis on the Intellectual Contribution of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke. The family began to see the need for creating a legacy project. In 2016, came the biography, Beauty of the Heart, The Life and Times of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke that I authored. Thulasizwe Makanya came to the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein for the launch and started finalizing plans for a legacy project.
By the end of 2016, thanks to the family, The Charlotte Mannya Maxeke Institute (CMMI) was established. Nine years later, it has grown into a formidable legacy project not easily matched by many others. “This has grown into a movement,” he said as he and his small team launched the 365-day countdown to the 125th anniversary of Charlotte’s graduation next year. On the day she graduated 124 years ago, 20 June 1901, he announced the intention to establish a Girls School of Excellence in her name alongside an AgriCity Project.
CMMI has entered a partnership with PPS, an investment fund for graduates, and they have presented the vision of the school and AgriCity initiative. To mark this countdown, CCMI hosted a powerful lecture, The Forgotten Graduates, honouring the unsung graduates whose legacies shaped education and justice in South Africa. At the same time, they ignited an urgent dialogue around equality, access, and leadership in today’s society.
Featuring their bold vision for the future, the Girls School of Excellence-the heart of the upcoming AgriCity-will transform education through project-based learning in STEM, agriculture, and leadership, empowering a new generation of changemakers to tackle real-world challenges. They urged everyone to be part of a movement that honours the past, empowers the present, and builds a future where every girl leads with purpose.
The book Becoming Charlotte ends on the day she graduated on 20 June 1901. I have dedicated it to the youth of the world to help them understand that African women have often reached for the stars over the years.
I wrote this book because I realized that the biography was reaching only a limited number of readers. It is my dream that every South African young person should grow up with this story. Hence, this offering.
Zubeida Jaffer
Penny Lebyane
Zipporah Maubane
Fatima Vawda
Hosting the Johannesburg launch in Norwood was media personality Penny Lebyane. I was delighted that she and three other leading women joined in to make the evening memorable for the guests, who filled every available chair. Like Penny, I own a small company called Number10Publishers. My daughter and I started it four years ago during Covid, when my daughter asked me what would happen with my creative work when I died.
We put our heads together and decided to take back my three books from established companies and relaunched the titles under our own imprint. In this way, my daughter Ruschka has ownership over my work. We set up our own online shop selling directly to the public and to schools and have successfully recovered our initial investment (my savings). At the same time, I have relaunched my website (www.zubeidajaffer.co.za) and started in a focused way to curate my own articles and those of others of a high quality. At a time when fake news is so pervasive, I want to make a small contribution to publishing stories that are fully checked as factually true. Becoming Charlotte is the fourth title that we are adding to our stable.
I would not have been able to launch in Gauteng without the support of Fatima Vawda of 27Four. Interestingly, Fatima, like Penny and I, is committed to building South African companies that understand our narrative for a just, fair and diverse South Africa where all live in dignity. If we don’t set out to do so, our children will be at the mercy of others who do not have our interests at heart.
Fatima Vawda is the CEO of 27four, a diversified financial services group she founded in 2007 to challenge industry norms. 27four spans asset and fiduciary management, and fund hosting across public and private markets. A DEI champion, Fatima launched an incubator that has backed over 50 Black and/or women-owned fund managers. She serves on the ASISA board and Wits University’s Board of Governors. 27four is a leading South African financial services group offering innovative investment solutions across listed and unlisted markets, with a strong focus on transformation, sustainability, and inclusive growth.
She announced that her company will donate 200 copies of Becoming Charlotte to the CMMI for the schools in the Batlokwa region in Limpopo, which includes the family’s Ramokgopa Village.
The guest speaker of the evening, Zipporah Maubane from Bakgatla-Ba-Mocha Royalty, was unexpectedly asked to travel to Equatorial Guinea and could not personally attend.
She graciously sent us her recorded comments.
She is the Head of Communications and Advocacy at the African Union Development Agency — NEPAD, where she leads efforts to advance the African Union’s Agenda 2063 its aspirations and goals.
She too is passionate about reframing perceptions and positioning Africa as a magnet for investment.
With over 28 years of experience, Zipporah has held pivotal roles across various sectors such as Altron, Zutari,, SASOL and the UK’s DPD. For a while Zipporah ran an advisory agency working with mid-size businesses on brand positioning, digital transformation, market access and fund-raising.
Her expertise in strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, and brand positioning makes her a vital leader in shaping Africa’s development narrative on a global scale. She is a qualified coach and focuses on working with female leaders in various phases of transition including career, business and empty-nesting.
Besides sharing the name Makgomo with Charlotte Mannya Maxeke, she is actively involved in the AME Church which came to South Africa through Mam Charlotte, a woman who lead with purpose.
