Matthews , Zacharaih Keodirelang , 1901-1968 , anthropologist and political activist

Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews was born in the Cape Colony, South Africa, in 1901, and educated in South Africa, the United States and Britain. In 1936 he joined the staff of Fort Hare University as a lecturer in Anthropology and African Law. In 1945 he became a professor, and in 1954 Acting Principal. During this time he was active in political affairs, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1940, and soon assumed a leading role. In 1952 Mathews was involved in the preparations for a Defiance Campaign. In May 1953 he proposed that a National Convention of all South Africans be held during which a peace manifesto should be drafted. His proposal was generally met with approval by the ANC and several other organisation, and resulted in the Congress of the People of June 1955 during which the Freedom Charter was adopted. This activity led to his arrest in 1956, on a charge of High Treason, he was tried and acquitted. In 1959 he left Fort Hare, in 1960 the ANC was banned, and after the Sharpeville shootings he was detained for 135 days. In 1962 he left South Africa to join the staff of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, travelling widely in Africa on WCC business. He died in 1968 in Washington DC.