South African Choral Music (Amakwaya): Song, Contest and the ...

100 Negotiating Tradition and the Modem: Towards a National Culture
good work. He was a very powerful preacher and laboured diligently among his people, and soon won
hundreds of them to Christianity, some of whom are, to-day, ministers in the Wesleyan Church. In private
life he was a quiet man, a gentleman at heart, and a true Christian. He died in 1929 at his home in
Hersche1.35
Skota's father qualified as a teacher at Healdtown Institution and in 1875 became a teacher in
Bathurst. Later he was appointed an interpreter at the Magistrate's office in Alexander, and then in
Port Alfred and Somerset East. Mweli Skota was born and educated in Kimberley, worked as a clerk
at Crown Mines, and in 1912 joined the staff of the ANC newspaper, Abanthu Batho, of which he
became the editor in 1928. In 1920 he cemented his social position by marrying Frances Mabel
Maud, daughter of Paul and Elanor Xiniwe, who were part of the African Native Choir. The
Xiniwe family was one of the most established in the Cape. Marriages within the small educated
class seem to be common amongst middle class Africans, and are an indicator of a closed and
cross-linked community.36 In fact, Skota's publication confirms the belief that the middle class was
careful to establish close links among its members. Kinship ties and personal friendship constituted
important prerequisites for the formation of an African middle class identity.37 Z. K. Matthews confirms
this:
Those black Africans who fttst accepted education formed an elite throughout southern Africa. They
knew one another, they intermarried even across language divisions, they served together on public bodies
such as the African National Congress. They were prepared to make great sacrifices to ensure the
education of their children.38
Z. K. Matthews married Frieda, the daughter of John Knox Bokwe, in 1928, three years after he
went to teach at Adams College. In his autobiography, he recalls what had happened, when he
wrote a letter to his father telling him about Frieda Bokwe, whom he had met at Fort Hare: " ... he
[my father] had quietly been enquiring about the Bokwe family and what he had heard had satisfied
him, as indeed one might have expected".39 Middle class families were very careful about status and
religious attitudes when expanding their kinship ties through marriage.
4.1.2 Factors of Negotiation: The Formula "Was Respected by Europeans and Natives Alike"
This is yet another phrase that is used frequently throughout the Register. The fact that Skota was
very careful to include this criterion in many of his biographies is an important indicator of change
in the identity of the black middle class, whose ambition in the nineteenth century had been directed
towards separation from traditional societies and values. Skota might have had a variety of
motives. He might have been for the most part motivated by the desire for widespread popularity.
The black elite were very conscious of how other communities (especially, of course, the white so­
ciety) perceived them. Even though their ambition was to become part of Western progressive cul­
ture, rejection by the traditionalists would mean a damaging loss of popularity. Though the African
elite rejected many of the traditional values, they were often keen to be "respected by Europeans
and natives alike". In other words, it might have simply been a mark of success to have earned the
respect of both black and white.
35 T. D. M. Skota, 193?: 84.
36 Mercy Xiniwe, another daughter of Paul Xiniwe, married Ben Tyamzashe, a famous music teacher, choral conductor,
and composer. Also see R. H. Davis, 1979: 19.
37 Schools played an important role in establishing these lasting bonds. See Chapter 2.2.2; also Chapter 4.1.1.
38 Z. K. Matthews, 1986: 120.
39 Ibid.: 82.