ZK Matthews
Born	Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews (1901-10-20)20 October 1901 Winter's Rush,Cape Colony
Died	11 May 1968(1968-05-11) (aged 66) Washington, DC
Education	University of South Africa Yale University London School of Economics
Children	Joe Matthews
Scientific career
Fields	Social Anthropology andCustom Law
Institutions	University of Fort Hare
Doctoral advisor	Bronisław Malinowski
Notable students	Mangosuthu Buthelezi Seretse Khama Nelson Mandela Charles Njonjo Oliver Tambo [1]

Zachariah Keodirelang MatthewsOLG (20 October 1901 – 11 May 1968^[2]) was a prominent black academic inSouth Africa, lecturing atSouth African Native College (renamedUniversity of Fort Hare in 1955). Many future leaders of the African continent were among his students.

Z.K. Matthews was born inWinter's Rush nearKimberley in 1901, the son of aBamangwato mineworker. Z.K. grew up in urban Kimberley, but maintained close connections with his mother's ruralBarolong relatives. He went to Mission high school in the eastern Cape where he attendedLovedale. After Lovedale he studied atSouth African Native College inFort Hare. In 1923 he wrote the external examination of theUniversity of South Africa.

In 1924, he was appointed head of the high school atAdams College inNatal.^[3]Albert Luthuli was also a teacher here. The two men attended meetings of the Durban Joint Council and held office in the Natal Teacher's Association, of which Matthews eventually was elected president.

While in Natal, in 1928, he marriedFrieda Bokwe, daughter ofJohn Knox Bokwe and his wife. He had met her as a student at Fort Hare. Their son,Joe, was born in 1929 inDurban. He later became a prominent politician.^[4]

In 1930, after private study, Matthews earned anLLB degree in South Africa, awarded by the University of South Africa. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney and practiced for a short time inAlice, Eastern Cape. In 1933, he was invited to study atYale University in theUnited States. There in the following year he completed an MA. He then studied at theLondon School of Economics, pursuing anthropology underBronisław Malinowski.

He returned to South Africa in 1935. In 1936 he was appointed Lecturer inSocial Anthropology and Native Law and Administration at University of Fort Hare. AfterDavidson Don Tengo Jabavu’s retirement in 1944, Matthews was promoted to Professor and became head of Fort Hare’s Department ofAfrican Studies.

Matthews did not confine himself to an academic career. He combined his study ofanthropology and the law with an active political involvement. He found his true political home in theANC. He had attended meetings as a boy in the company ofSol Plaatje, a senior relative. He did not become a member until 1940. In 1943, he was elected to theNational Executive Committee. At the time he also became a member of theNative Representative Council, a purely advisory body that has been condemned as a “toy telephone”. Matthews found his participation on it to be frustrating, although he found dealing with theNative Education Act of 1945 to be a “valuable experience” for the people he met. In June 1949, Matthews succeededJames Calata as ANC provincial president in the Cape.

In June 1952, on the eve of theDefiance Campaign, he left South Africa for a position as visiting professor at New York'sUnion Theological Seminary.

He returned home in May 1953. Although he did not attend theCongress of the People in 1955, he assistedLionel "Rusty" Bernstein in drawing up theFreedom Charter that was adopted there.Denis Goldberg credits Matthews with having been one of the driving forces behind the proposal for gathering and documenting the wishes of the people for the Charter.^[5]

Matthews was arrested in December 1956, and was one of the accused in theTreason Trial. On his release from the trial in late 1958, he returned to Fort Hare. He resigned his post in protest against the passage of legislation that reduced the university to a status of an ethnic college for theXhosa community only.

In 1961, Matthews moved toGeneva, Switzerland after being selected as secretary of the Africa division of theWorld Council of Churches.

In 1966, he accepted the post ofambassador to the United States for the newly independent nation ofBotswana. He died in the capitalWashington, DC on 11 May 1968.

• A New Native Teachers' Course, Ilanga lase Natal, November 4, 11, 1927
• Bantu Law and Western Civilisation in South Africa: A Study in the Clash of Cultures Yale University, 1934. Master of Arts thesis.
• A Short History of the Tshidi Barolong, Fort Hare Papers, vol. 1 no. 1, June 1945
• Foreword, inResponsible Government in a Revolutionary Age, [ed.] Z. K. Matthews, Association Press, New York, 1966.
• Freedom For My People, Cape Town: Collings, 1981. (Published posthumously in 1981)
• Africa holds her own. An appreciation of Bantu tribal and national culture in the Imperial Protectorates and in the Union of South Africa. By W. Bryant Mumford. in co-operation with Hugh Ashton . [and] Z.K. Matthews.
• African awakening and the universities,Cape TownUniversity of Cape Town, 1961.

• Joe Matthews
• Naledi Pandor
• Temba Maqubela

• Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews at South African History Online

• The African Activist Archive Project includesInterview with Professor Z. K. Matthews by George M. Houser in South Africa in September 1954.

• 1901 births
• 1968 deaths
• People from Dikgatlong Local Municipality
• Cape Colony people
• South African Tswana people
• African National Congress politicians
• Alumni of the London School of Economics
• South African anti-apartheid activists
• People acquitted of treason
• South African prisoners and detainees
• Prisoners and detainees of South Africa
• Ambassadors of Botswana to the United States
• Academic staff of the University of Fort Hare
• Recipients of the Order of Luthuli
• 20th-century South African anthropologists
• Alumni of Lovedale
• South African lecturers

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