The granting of land by Chief Tyali for establishing a place of learning for Africans as earlyas the 1800s was unprecedented on the sub-continent. During this period South Africa wasstill in the throes of colonial expansion and British annexation of parts of the Eastern Capeduring the Frontier Wars. Chief Tyali’s donation of land to Scottish missionaries camebetween these Frontier Wars, the primary purpose of which was land dispossession. Giventhe prevailing circumstances, this would have been unpopular with many African chiefs atthe time. Yet it is precisely this unconventionality that made Chief Tyali a visionary leader. Inaddition to education, part of the reasoning in granting the land was an attempt to gainknowledge into the workings of the colonial system.
The establishment of Lovedale and later the University of Fort Hare on land granted by ChiefTyali in turn produced some of South Africa's and Africa’s leading stalwarts in the struggleagainst colonial rule and apartheid. Therefore, the legacy of Chief Tyali and the history ofthese two institutions and their contribution to South Africa are intertwined. The grave site ofChief Tyali is a tangible representation of the contribution he has made to the education ofAfricans and great African leaders through his own insightful and visionary leadership.
The University of Fort Hare was South Africa’s first multi-racial, multi-cultural institution,fulfilling Chief Tyali’s desire of educating African people, and became the epitome of ideas,freedom of speech and creative thinking during the oppressive systems of both the colonialand apartheid governments; and from which the very first generation of African leadership andintelligentsia emerged. The sites declared here include the buildings where liberation leadersattended class, meetings, intellectual debates and represents the confluence of ideas fromseveral walks of life that inspired leader who spearheaded the liberation of many Africancountries.
The University is the custodian of the Liberation Movement Archives (incorporating the AfricanNational Congress Archives, Pan African Congress Archives, Black ConsciousnessMovement archives as well as personal collections, such as Govan Mbeki and Donald Woods)and Africa’s largest collection of contemporary African Art works.
Professor ZK Matthews inspired by the Atlantic Charter, proposed at the ANC’s annualcongress the idea of a Congress of the People to draft and adopt a Freedom Charter. Withthe approval of his proposal, a National Action Council was established with thousands ofvolunteers collecting inputs from ordinary South Africans across the country. The process ofdrafting and adopting the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955was, at the time, the most democratic in South Africa’s history. The Freedom Charter formedthe basis of the liberation movements and the Constitution of the post-apartheid democraticSouth Africa.
