Significant Black South Africans in Britain before 1912

Abstract

Before 1912 a small number of black South Africans lived and studied in Britain. This experience of a ‘modern’ European industrial society, so different from the racially constructed states and colonies south of the Limpopo, exposed them to new ideas, freedoms and opportunities, including contacts with white sympathisers and patrons and with black people from the African diaspora. For some these were formative years which helped shape their political awareness and self-confidence as they engaged with different expressions of Christian brotherhood, pan-Africanism, and the English legal system. The major focus here is on a handful of individuals: Alice Kinloch, Francis J. Peregrino, Henry Gabashane, and the first black South African lawyers Isaac Pixley Seme and Alfred Mangena.