Govan Mbeki. Colin Bundy

(which was also the language of colonial command) was one element in their repertoire. Calling upon an African national identity (which meant identifying with the call of nationalism) was another, indispensable component.

      Skelewu Mbeki, as we have seen, was determined that his younger son should be educated; and Govan was gripped by education and its pleasures. But his own ties to Mpukane seem to have worn thin during his years at Healdtown and Fort Hare. He spent more time on the Rand than in the Transkei. He and his brother Sipho had fallen out, over the expense of Govan’s education. In 1935 his mother died. Yet when he can have least expected it, village matters impinged on his life. A new headman was to be appointed in Mpukane ward. While a sizeable faction of amaZizi villagers favoured having another Mbeki as headman, they knew that the Nqamakwe magistrate did not favour Sipho Mbeki. And so they nominated Govan for the post. The magistrate was dubious. He considered Govan too young and believed that ‘it is very doubtful whether he would take up the appointment’, but approached Govan, by then teaching in Natal. Govan made a trip home; spoke to some of the elders; and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the magistrate to appoint a regent until Sipho’s son was old enough to take the reins. He had no desire to take the post himself. He had a degree (he pointed out) and was earning more than the pittance paid to a headman.

      The episode was not an important one in Govan’s life. He never mentioned it; and laughed, surprised, when I raised it in an interview: ‘Yes, that was – how did you get that?’ Unimportant, perhaps; yet as one contemplates the pattern of his life, it is a telling moment. It coincided with his move from formal education to employment; it demarcates the difference between his father’s horizons and his own; and it reinforces the sense of how the young graduate had been shaped by school and university. The magistrate was right to suppose that Govan was unlikely to accept the post if it were offered to him. He had been schooled beyond it: emotionally, intellectually and politically.

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Permanent persuader

      Mbeki in the Transkei, 1940–1952