Heritage Cases

Matthews was born in Kimberley in 1901, the son of Peter Motsielwa and Martha Mooketsi Matthews, a Tswana mineworker who later opened a café. Though exposed to politics at a young age, his father was a Cape voter and his cousin Sol Plaatje, a founder member of the ANC. Matthews devoted the first part of his life exclusively to education. From Lovedale, where Tshekedi Khama was his fellow student, he entered Fort Hare University and in 1923 became the first African to obtain a B A degree at a South African institution. In 1925 he was appointed first African head of Adams College in Natal. Where Albert Luthuli was his colleague and his students included Anton Lembede and Jordan Ngubane. With Luthuli he attended meetings of the Durban Joint Council and held office in the Natal teachers association, of which he eventually became president. Matthews was born in Kimberley in 1901, the son of Peter Motsielwa and Martha Mooketsi Matthews, a Tswana mineworker who later opened a café. Though exposed to politics at a young age, his father was a Cape voter and his cousin Sol Plaatje, a founder member of the ANC. Matthews devoted the first part of his life exclusively to education. From Lovedale, where Tshekedi Khama was his fellow student, he entered Fort Hare University and in 1923 became the first African to obtain a B A degree at a South African institution. In 1925 he was appointed first African head of Adams College in Natal. Where Albert Luthuli was his colleague and his students included Anton Lembede and Jordan Ngubane. With Luthuli he attended meetings of the Durban Joint Council and held office in the Natal teachers association, of which he eventually became president. In 1928 he married Frieda Bokwe, daughter of John Knox Bokwe. After private study, Matthews became the first African to earn an LLB degree in South Africa. In 1930 he was admitted as an attorney to the Johannesburg Bar and the Transvaal division of the Supreme Court. However, he did not join the bar, but continue his studies abroad. In 1933 he was invited to study Race Relations and Culture Contact with C. Loram at Yale University in the United States, and the following year he completed an MA. He then went on to spend a year at the London School of Economics to study anthropology under Bronislaw Malinowski.