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Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews, known as Z.K. Matthews, was a prominent South African academic who lectured at the South African Native College, later renamed the University of Fort Hare. Born in 1901, he earned a BA from the University of South Africa in 1923 after studies at Fort Hare and an LLB in 1930, becoming the first African to obtain both degrees from a Southern African institution. He later completed an MA at Yale University in 1934 and pursued further studies in anthropology at the London School of Economics under Bronisław Malinowski.
In 1936, Matthews was appointed Lecturer in Social Anthropology and Native Law and Administration at the University of Fort Hare. He advanced to Professor and head of the Department of African Studies in 1944. His career included a visiting professorship at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1952. Matthews resigned from Fort Hare in protest against apartheid policies that restricted the institution. He later served as secretary of the Africa division of the World Council of Churches and, from 1966, as Botswana’s ambassador to the United States and representative to the United Nations until his death in 1968. Key publications include his MA thesis Bantu Law and Western Civilisation in South Africa (1934), A Short History of the Tshidi Barolong (1945), and the posthumous autobiography Freedom For My People (1981). He influenced numerous students who became leaders across Africa.
Explore Nelson Mandela's university days at the University of Fort Hare, its pioneering role in black higher education, apartheid challenges, and modern resurgence in South Africa.
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