Max Yergan

by David Henry Anthony III

  16. Mott, letter written on S.S. Highland Mary, crossing the South Atlantic, 4 July 1906, Mott Papers, Manuscript Collection 45, Box 117, Folder 1940, Mott Room, DSLMA/YU.

  17. Mott, 4 July 1906.

  18. Yergan to Mott, 18 August 1922, cited in Basil Mathews, John R. Mott, World Citizen (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1934), 1775.

  19. Bull to Mott, Stellenbosch, C[ape].C[olony]., 6.2.08 (6 February 1908), WSCF Collection, MS #46, Box 253, Folder 2119, “Correspondence Bull to Mott, 1906–1909,” Mott Room, DSLMA/YU.

  20. “Max Yergan, National Secretary for Africa,” Intercollegian 39:5 (February 1922): 4.

  21. “News from Max Yergan,” Number 1, February 1922, filed 1 June 1929, Box C, YMCA Historical Library.

  22. A.M.E. Church Review 39:1 (April 1922).

  23. “The Negro in Africa: No Answer but God,” Association Men 47:12 (August 1922): 561.

  24. Max Yergan, “On the YMCA in North America,” Manhood 3:7 (November 1922): 151–57.

  25. “A Letter from Max Yergan, Alice, Cape Province, South Africa, 7 April, 1924,” Howard University Record 18 (1923–24): 537.

  26. Yergan to Henriod, 30 August 1923, File Max Yergan 1922–24, Box 43-45, WSCF Archives, Geneva.

  27. “Visit of Max Yergan to Natal University College,” Universitas 3:4 (December 1923).

  28. “Some Impressions of a Conference Held at Rustoord, Somerset Strand,” Universitas 3:4 (December 1923): 24–26.

  29. Founded in 1868 as the Normal School, Morija, as it is now known, was also called Thabeng School (Sesotho: “on the mountain”) during the times when Yergan visited. After 1948 it became Basutoland Training College. Long the preeminent publisher of Sesotho literature, Morija is the site of a museum, archive, and annual festival. Stephen Gill, Curator, Morija Museum and Archives to Anthony, 23 April 2003.

  30. “Our Visitors,” Leselinyana la Lesotho, 30 November 1923, 1–2. Original in Sesotho. Translated by Thabo M. Leanya. Typed by Mrs. Tiisetso Pitso and Mrs. ’Mamatong Massa. Provided by Stephen J. Gill, Morija Museum and Archives. I appreciate the hours that went into this. Contact made through Bob Edgar.

  31. L. M. Moletsane, “To the Members of the Progressive Association of Lesotho” (Morija Branch), Leselinyana, 30 November 1923, 2. Sesotho original translated by T. M. Leanya; sent by Stephen Gill, Curator, Morija Museum and Archives.

  32. L. M. Moletsane, “Baeti ba Rona (Our Visitors) Part III),” Leselinyana, 7 December 1923, 2. Sesotho original. T. M. Leanya, translator. Text provided by Stephen Gill, Morija Museum and Archives, Lesotho.

  33. During the early twentieth century, an African-American sojourner named Conrad Rideout lived in Basutoland. He spent at least part of 1903 there. See J. Mutero Chirenje, Ethiopianism and Afro-Americans in Southern Africa, 1883–1916 (Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1982), chapter 4, “Growth of the AME Church, the Witch Hunt, and Its Aftermath,” 99.

  34. Sotho-Tswana speakers would have been familiar with servile cultural institutions resembling slavery. See Thomas Tlou, “Servility and Political Control: Botlhanka among the BaTawana of Northwestern Botswana, ca. 1750–1906,” in Suzanne Miers and Igor Kopytoff, eds., Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977), 367–414.

  35. On this see Daniel P. Kunene, Heroic Poetry of the Basotho (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), and M. Damane and Peter Sanders, Lithoko: Sotho Praise Poems (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974).

  36. Yergan to Henriod, 10 January 1924, WSCF Collection, Geneva.

  37. Bull to E. C. Jenkins, 20 February 1924, YMCA Archives.

  38. Yergan, “The Native Students of South Africa and Their Problems,” Student World 62 (April 1923): 62–67.

  39. The High Leigh Conference on African Education held 8–13 September 1924, called by Dr J. H. Oldham, laid the foundation for the 1926 Le Zoute Conference and the establishment of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures. Edwin William Smith, Aggrey of Africa: A Study in Black and White (London: Student Christian Movement, 1929), 231.

  40. Bull to Jenkins, 20 February 1924, WSCF MS Collection #46, Box 253, Folder 2120, Correspondence Mott-Bull, 1910–1925, Mott Room, DSLMA/YU.

  41. Imvo Zabantzundu, 25 March, 8 April, and 15 April 1924.

  42. Bull to Mott, 29 April 1924, WSCF MS Collection #46, Box 253 Folder 2120, Mott Room, DSLMA/YU.

  43. Yergan to Kerr, 6 September 1924, PR4090/3, Alexander Kerr Papers, Cory Library for Historical Research, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

  44. Smith, Aggrey of Africa, 231.

  45. E. W. Smith, The Christian Mission in Africa: A Study Based on the Work of the International Conference at Le Zoute, Belgium, September 14th to 21st, 1926 (London: 1926).

  46. Yergan to Moorland, 1 June 1925, MSRC/HU.

  47. Yergan to Moorland, 1 June 1925, MSRC/HU.

  48. Yergan to Moorland, 1 June 1925, MSRC/HU.

  49. News Letter, Student Christian Association (Native Department), No. 32, March 1926, Moorland Papers, MSRC/HU. In this newsletter, compiled by Yergan, the teachers referred to by their surnames were Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews, Albert (later Chief) John Lut[h]uli, Roseberry Tandwefika Bokwe, R. Guma, and a Mr. Mbamba.

  50. Smith, The Christian Mission in Africa, 26, 28. Also attending were J. H. Oldham, Anson Phelps Stokes, Thomas Jesse Jones, John Dube, ANC leader Z. R. Mahabane, and John Hope. Author Smith praised Yergan for the “sincerity and restraint of his contributions.” Phelps Stokes made an appraisal of his own. It appears in the Max Yergan file, n.d., filed 5 January 1927, YMCA Historical Library.

  51. “Race Relations in South Africa,” Tuskegee Messenger, 30 October 1926, 8.

  52. Yergan received a Phelps Stokes grant on November 10, was interviewed at Rockefeller on October 21 and November 11, and was the subject of news reports about the aid by year’s end. Anson Phelps Stokes to George Edmund Haynes, 10 November 1927, Anson Phelps Stokes Papers, Group 299, Series I, Box 24, folder 382, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale. Imvo Zabantsundu, 6 December 1927; “Rockefeller Gives $25,000 for Africans,” New York Times, 7 December 1927, 20:5; “Ama £5000 ku Nokoleji!” (Translated as “General Notes: Another Fort Hare Gift.”) Imvo Zabantsundu, 13 December 1927; “Max Yergan Returns to African Veldt with Rockefeller Gift,” Tuskegee Messenger, 14–29 January 1928; “What Others Say: The YMCA in Africa,” Southern Workman, March 1928.

  53. “Race Issue Is Subject of Northfield Talk,” New York Times, 14 July 1927.

  54. Ovington to William Jay Schieffelin, 7 December 1927, NAACP Papers, Container 8, Library of Congress.

  55. “Max Yergan,” in Ralph W. Bullock, In Spite of Handicaps (New York: Associated Press, 1927); “Max Yergan,” in Mary White Ovington, Portraits in Color (New York: Viking, 1927).

  56. To Yergan, 14 December 1927, WSCF Archives, Geneva, Switzerland.

  57. “The Strength and Weakness of the Missionary Movement in Africa,” in Gordon Poteat, ed., Students and the Future of Christian Missions: Report of the Tenth Quadrennial Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, Detroit, Michigan, December 28, 1927 to January 1, 1928 (New York: Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 1928), 38.

  58. “Strength and Weakness,” 38.

  59. “Talks with Boys about Our Attitude toward the Boys of Other Races,” World’s Youth 4:1 (January 1928): 9.

  60. “Talks with Boys,” 9.

  61. “Talks with Boys,” 9.

  62. “Talks with Boys,” 11.

  63. Mordecai Johnson to Yergan, 10 February 1927; Yergan to Moorland, 14 February 1927; J. E. Moorland Papers, MSRC/HU, Box 126-65, file 1243—YMCA Max Yergan Correspondence—1928–29. “Northeastern at Work in Africa,” Northeastern News (Northeastern University), Yergan File, YMCA Historical Library.

  64. Thamae to Yergan, 15 March 1928, Max Yergan Papers, MSRC/HU.

  65. Stephen Gish, Alfred B. Xuma: African, American, South African (New York:
New York University Press, 2000), 13.

  66. Xuma to Yergan, 4 June 1928, Max Yergan Papers, MSRC/HU.

  67. Xuma to Yergan, 7 June 1928. Arthur later authored the influential text Life on the Negro Frontier (New York: Association Press, 1944).

  68. Xuma to Yergan, 27 July 1928, A. B. Yuma Papers, Hoover Institution.

  69. Yergan to Ovington, 26 June 1928, NAACP Papers, I, container 88, Library of Congress.

  70. Thomas Jesse Jones to Anson Phelps Stokes, 26 June 1927, Phelps Stokes Papers, Yale.

  71. Yergan, “Impressions of the Port Elizabeth Conference,” Universitas 8:8 (August 1928).

  72. Ovington to Yergan, 24 October 1928, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress.

  NOTES TO CHAPTER 4

  1. “Max Yergan of Africa Is Guest of the Cedar Y,” Cleveland Red Triangle, 9 January 1928.

  2. Cleveland Red Triangle.

  3. “Northeastern at Work in South Africa: Entire University Sponsors Max Yergan’s Educational Project,” Northeastern News, n.d. (ca. March – April 1928). Copy courtesy of Ruth Hartson, International Division, YMCA.

  4. “Max Yergan Spoke on ‘The New Africa’ at N.U. Mass Meeting,” Northeastern News, n.d.

  5. “Recent Cablegram Emphasizes Needs,” Northeastern News, n.d.

  6. “American Institutions Support Work in Far Distant Lands,” Northeastern News, n.d.

  7. John N. Thomas, The Institute of Pacific Relations: Asian Scholars and American Politics (Seattle and London, University of Washington Press, 1974), 3.

  8. Yergan, “Report for the Year 1928.”

  9. Yergan to Ovington, 26 June 1928, NAACP Papers, Container 88, Library of Congress. The conference yielded a book, The Realignment of Native Life on a Christian Basis: The Seventh General Missionary Conference of South Africa Held at Lovedale, June 26–29, 1928. In addition to Yergan and Kadalie, Charlotte Maxeke made a noteworthy contribution on African women.

  10. On Jimmy la Guma see Alex la Guma, Jimmy la Guma: A Biography, ed. Mohamed Adhikari (Cape Town: Friends of the South African Library, 1997).

  11. The Communist International, 1919–1943: Documents, vol. 2, 1923–1928, selected and edited by Jane Degras (London, New York, and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1960), 97.

  12. Degras, ed., Communist International, 2:164.

  13. See Hyman Kublin, Asian Revolutionary: The Life of Katayama Sen (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964).

  14. “Extracts from the Theses on the Revolutionary Movement in Colonial and Semi-Colonial Countries Adopted by the Sixth Comintern Congress, IV: The Immediate Tasks of the Communists,” in Degras, ed., The Communist International, 2:546–47.

  15. “Extracts From the Theses on the Revolutionary Movement,” in Degras, ed., The Communist International, 2:546–47.

  16. Henri-Louis Henriod to Yergan, 7 May 1928, Box 84, WSCF Archives, Geneva.

  17. Alexander Kerr, “Visit of Max Yergan, M.A., to India,” n.d. (ca. 1928). Typescript, copy courtesy of Ruth Hartson, YMCA International Division.

  18. It was thoroughly up to date, citing Parker Moon’s 1926 Imperialism and World Politics, Leonard Woolf’s 1919 Empire and Commerce in Africa, J. A. I. Agar-Hamilton’s 1928 Native Policy of the Voortrekkers, Lord Frederick Lugard’s 1922 Dual Mandate, Raymond Buell’s 1927 Native Problem in Africa, W. M. MacMillan’s 1927 Cape Colour Question and E. H. Brookes’s 1924 Native Policy in South Africa.

  19. 22–23.

  20. 31–32.

  21. 50.

  22. William J. Schieffelin to F. P. Keppel, 7 March 1929, notes courtesy R. Hunt Davis Jr.

  23. Yergan to “Dear Francis” (Miller), 26 March 1929, YMCA Student Division Papers, Correspondence, Box 13, Folder 191, D. R. Porter to Max Yergan, WSCF Collection, Mott Room, Divinity School Library, Yale University.

  24. Yergan to Porter, 5 April 1929, YMCA Student Division Papers, Correspondence, Box 13, Folder 191, D. R. Porter to Max Yergan. WSCF Collection, John Mott Room, Divinity School Library, Yale.

  25. Yergan to Porter, 5 April 1929.

  26. Porter to “Dear Max,” 24 May 1929, Yergan file, YMCA

  27. “News from Max Yergan, No. 2,” 15 April 1929, YMCA Archives, courtesy Ruth Hartson.

  28. 1/ALC, volume 10/4, file 18/10/2, Cape Archives Depot, Republic of South Africa (RSA), 3 pages (correspondence between the principal of Fort Hare and the magistrate of Alice and a letter from D. H. Ecker to the South African government trade commissioner regarding work carried out in South Africa.

  29. Yergan to Henriod, 25 June 1929, Box 123, Max Yergan File, 1928–1929, WSCF Archives, Geneva.

  30. Yergan to Porter, 23 July 1920, Box 123, Yergan file, 1928–1929, WSCF Archives, Geneva.

  31. Yergan to Ovington, 2 August 1929, Mary White Ovington Collection, Box 2, folder 2-1, Wayne State University Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Walter P. Reuther Library, Courtesy of Raymond Boryczka, Research Archivist, Reuther Library, Wayne State University (WSU), Detroit.

  32. On this see D. Anthony, “Max Yergan and South Africa: Theological Perspectives on Race,” Journal of Religion in Africa 34:3 (September 2004): 235–65.

  33. “Whites Pay Africans Liquor Wages,” Afro-American, 12 October 1929.

  34. Jan Christian Smuts, “African Settlement,” in Africa and Some World Problems (Oxford: 1930), 47–48.

  35. “African Settlement,” 74–75.

  36. “African Settlement,” 76–77.

  37. “African Settlement,” 77–78.

  38. “African Settlement,” 91–93.

  39. Yergan to Henriod, 11 November 1929, Box 123, File Max Yergan, 1928–1929, WSCF Archives, Geneva.

  40. Born in Ladysmith, Natal, in 1910, but raised in Cape Town, the son of a Methodist minister, M’Timkulu had attended Lovedale in Alice and Adams College in Natal, where he was taught and mentored by Albert Luthuli. M’Timkulu earned two degrees at Fort Hare, a 1927 A.B., and an M.A. that he would complete slightly later, in the 1930s.

  41. Don M’Timkulu telephone interview, 29 March 1994.

  42. Don M’Timkulu telephone interview.

  43. This group came to include pioneer leader T. William Thibedi—the chief CPSA African functionary from 1921 to 1926—and was later joined by Albert Nzula, John B. Marks, Edwin Mofutsanyana, J. Sepeng, P. G. Moloinjane, S. M. Kotu, Gana Makabeni, B. Molobi, O. Motuba, W. Nchie, J. Ngedlane, Johannes Nkosi, W. Tayi, and Moses Kotane. Among African women the most well-known organizers were Josie Mpama (Palmer) and Hilda Msichane.

  44. Teachers in these schools included such activists as Edward and Winifred Roux, E. S. “Solly” Sachs, Charles Baker, Bennie Sachs, Wilhelmina Taylor, Eva Green, and other volunteers, both Black and White.

  45. E. Roux, Sidney Bunting: A Political Biography (Cape Town: African Bookman, 1944), 71–72.

  46. B. Bunting, Moses Kotane, South African Revolutionary: A Political Biography (London: Inkululeko Publications, 1975).

  47. Helmut Gruber, Soviet Russia Masters the Comintern: International Communism in the Era of Stalin’s Ascendancy (New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1974), 244–46. On Roy see his Memoirs (Bombay: Allied Publishers, 1964) and John Patrick Haithcox, Communism and Nationalism in India: M. N. Roy and Comintern Policy, 1920–1939 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971), as well as Roy’s Selected Works. Roy’s Memoirs include a terse but tantalizing tidbit about meeting “Negro” Comintern delegates from North America and South Africa in Moscow during the summer of 1920, attending the Second World Congress (345). Fisk-educated Katayama Sen is profiled in Hyman Kublin, Asian Revolutionary: The Life of Katayama Sen (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964). In his autobiography former Comintern rep Claude McKay credits Katayama with contributing to the formulation of the “Negro Question.” See McKay, A Long Way from Home (New York, 1937; reprinted Arno and the New York Times, 1969), 164–66. Though still not fully apparent, it is evident that Yergan knew such Black South African Comintern functionaries as Edwin Mofutsanyana, and probably
Jimmy La Guma and John Gomas as well. His relationship with Edward Roux is uncertain, yet likely in view of Roux’s activity in Fort Hare’s environs. Finally, he may have also learned a lot through his relationship with James W. Ford, who was intimately involved in both the Negro and Native questions amid the pivotal 1928 Moscow debates and thereafter. Brief reference to the Negro Question appears in the Report of the Fourth Congress of the R.I.L.U. (Red International of Labor Unions) (London: Minority Movement, July 1928), 187. The Fourth Congress instructs the Executive Bureau to call together the representatives of the Negro workers for carrying into effect the policy laid down in regard to the question of organizing Negro workers in the United States and in Africa.

  48. George E. Haynes, “Record of Interview with: 10 Ministers and Capetown YMCA Sec. in Conference 3–5 p.m. May 6, 1930,” George Edmund Haynes Papers, Sterling Library, Yale University. Yergan arranged this.

  49. Haynes, “Record of Interview.”

  50. Haynes, “Record of Interview.”

  51. Haynes, “Record of Interview.”

  52. East London Daily Dispatch, 28 June 1930.

  53. The best single source on this is the published proceedings, Christian Students and Modern South Africa: A Report of the Bantu-European Student Christian Conference, Fort Hare, June 27th–July 3rd, 1930 (Fort Hare: Student Christian Association, 1930). For a descriptive day-to-day survey, see the South African Outlook, 1 August 1930, 146–63.

  54. Howard Pim, Introduction to Bantu Economics: Paper Prepared for Conference of European and Bantu Christian Associations Held at Fort Hare, 27th June to 3rd July, 1930 (Lovedale: 1930), 12.

  55. Pim, Introduction to Bantu Economics, 15.

  56. This fact was not ignored by Die Burger.

  57. E. H. Brookes, “The Fort Hare Conference and Its Meaning,” Student World, 1930, 390.

  58. Telephone interview, Professor Donald G. S. M’Timkulu, Tuesday, 29 March 1994.

  59. Helen R. Bryan, “Max Yergan, Uplifter of South Africa,” Crisis (December 1932): 375.