John Knox Bokwe (March 15, 1855-February 22, 1922) was a Xhosa missionary, educator, and musician who played a role in the foundation in 1916 of what is now the University of Fort Hare (originally the South African Native College) in southeastern Cape Province. Bokwe was called Mdengentonga, a Xhosa word which describes a man short in stature but tall in deeds.
He was the youngest child of Cholwephi Bokwe, a Xhosa whose parents had left him, when he was one day old, at the Lovedale Mission in Cape Province, run by the United Free Church of Scotland. John Knox Bokwe’s mother was Lena, daughter of Nxe, one of the first converts of Ntsikana, a Xhosa diviner who, converted to Christianity in 1816, had become the first Xhosa prophet. READ FULL BIOGRAPHY