University of Fort Hare, South Africa – Notable Alumni; Mandela, Mugabe, Nyerere, Kaunda, etc.
Notable Alumni - https://www.ufh.ac.za/international/notable-alumni.html
It is the only Southern African university to have produced various international heads of states: Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Yusuf Lule of Uganda, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Ntsu Mokhehle of Lesotho, and Sir Seretse Khama of Botswana .Sir Charles Mugane Njonjo Kenyans first Attorney general is also one of Fort Hares notable alumni . Other Notable Honorary alumni include the 1st President of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere who was awarded Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa in 1998 and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.
History - https://www.ufh.ac.za/About/Pages/History.aspx
The South African Native College, later the University of Fort Hare, was, ironically, founded in 1916 on the site of the earlier British military stronghold. The college originated from the sometimes uneasy alliance between the new class of educated African Christians, supported by a number of traditional Southern African leaders, and early twentieth-century white liberals, many of them clergy.
The religious tradition at the heart of Fort Hare‟s origin, shared by blacks and whites alike, heralded "plain living and high thinking‟, and a form of education that was undeniably Eurocentric. However it did not make the assumption, central to the Bantu Education implemented in South Africa from the 1950's, that black Africans required or deserved a different, inferior education. Thus, the University of Fort Hare produced graduates from South Africa and as far north as Kenya and Uganda, who knew they were as good as the best. Many went on to prominent careers in fields as diverse as politics, medicine, literature and art. Some politically active alumni like Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Robert Sobukwe and Mangosuthu Buthelezi in South Africa, Robert Mugabe and Herbert Chitepo in Zimbabwe, and Elius Mathu and Charles Njonjo in Kenya, have impacted their nations. In the arts Fort Hare has released from South Africa, poet Dennis Brutus, Drum journalist Can Themba, sculptor and painter Ernest Mancoba and Xhosa author and scholar Archibald Campbell Jordan. The first black Zimbabwean medical doctor, Tichafa Samuel Parirenyatwa, and the historian, novelist and politician Stanlake Samkange were also among the many non-South Africans who spent formative years at Fort Hare.
The tradition survived through the affection and loyalty of people towards Fort Hare, and, when the opportunity arose after 1990 when the apartheid-era administration was expelled, many opted to work here. Supporters included Sibusiso Bengu, the first black Vice-chancellor of the new dispensation, later Minister of Education and subsequently the University Chancellor; Makhenkesi Stofile, the Minister of Sport and Recreation; and Sipho Pityana, Registrar in the early 1990's. It survived in the creation of a new Pan-Africanism and internationalism, with students from Zimbabwe to Eritrea, and staff from all over Africa and the world flocking to its doors.
The university is redefining its role as the producer and disseminator of new knowledge, particularly focusing on its central place in the reshaping of post apartheid South Africa, and repositioning itself as the empowerment agent in the political, economic, cultural and social revolution that is unfolding in the subcontinent and beyond. Its curriculum and research agenda is being tuned to resonate with the contextual social renaissance, both by stimulating it and by responding to it.
Following a decision by the Ministry of Education, the university has, since January 2004, been incorporating and integrating a new campus in the city of East London, formerly of Rhodes University, into UFH. This significant development in a new larger operating environment presents significant challenges as well as strategic opportunities for the calculated expansion of UFH into new markets, enabling it to play a stimulating and catalytic role in the development of the Buffalo City region. Hence it is strategically planning to grow and develop programmes in a much wider student market and is re-profiling Fort Hare across the three campuses in Alice, Bhisho and East London. As the backbone to a new academic system, five new Faculties were established in 2005-6. Over the next period significant expansion in the portfolio of academic and strategic programmes are foreseen.