Walter Rubusana
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Walter Rubusana
Clergyman, Humanist and Politician
Walter Benson Rubusana was born in the district of Somerset East
in 1858, was educated at Lovedale College and, after
serving as teacher and assistant pastor at Peelton, he was ordained
in the London Missionary Society in 1884. He gained a PhD from
McKinley University . He was a founder member of the
Native Educational Association (1879) to improve and
elevate the position of the "native races" by means of education. He
was also a member of the Union of Native Vigilance Societies
and was prominent in the establishment and administration of
East London's African newspaper, Izwi Labantu (1898).
Simultaneous with the creation of Izwi was the formation of
the South African Native Congress of which Rubusana was
an Executive Committee Member. In 1909 he became President of
the South African Native Convention , elected to study the
drafting of the Act of Union. He was also one of the delegates who
journeyed to England that year to carry the voice of Black protest
against the Union before the King. Once Union had been
accomplished, Rubusana decided to exert pressure from within the
system and was elected as the first Black Member of the Cape
Provincial Council to represent the Tembuland constituency.
Rubusana's work as a pastor at East London began in about 1888,
when he was posted to the Congregational Church at Newsam's
Town. He quickly became caught up in the need to uplift the social
conditions of his people, especially after the forced removals of 1890
and the establishment of the East Bank Location. For this reason he
founded the East London branch of the Native Vigilance
Association in 1892.
He died on 19 April 1936 at the age of 78, and was buried at East
London.
Dr Keith Tankard
