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University of Fort Hare, Wesley House Alice, Eastern Cape

Date: 1921 Type: University Hostels Status: Demolished 1970s

Methodist Hostel The original Wesley House opened in 1921 as a residence mainly for Methodist students. It was named after the father of Methodism, the 18th Century theologian John Wesley. Methodism was a progressive denomination - it was, for example, a leading force in the abolition of slavery - and its missions became widespread in the Eastern Cape. The nearby Healdtown was a leading Methodist school. "Each evening the warden of Wesley House used to review the military situation in Europe, and late at night we would huddle around an old radio and listen to BBC broadcasts of Winston Churchill's stirring speeches," recalled Nelson Mandela. His stay at Wesley House had coincided with the opening years of World War Two. Mandela also remembered vividly the political debates - including a fellow student's scorn of "black Englishmen" - that were so much a part of residential life at Fort Hare. By the 1950s Wesley was such a hotbed for student activism that it was known as "the Great House" - the place of leadership. Wesley House was later the residence of Robert Sobukwe, the brilliant student and orator. Sobukwe went on to found the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1959, after leading an ideological split from the African National Congress (ANC) that same year. Wesley House was extended in 1939, and a second Wesley House was subsequently erected nearby. The original Wesley house was demolished in the early 1970s, but the newer one still stands today. Although its current structure is not the "pleasant two-storey building on the edge of campus" which Mandela described in Long Walk to Freedom, it still carries the spirit of the generation of Mandela and Sobukwe within its walls. ___________ Text extracted and edited from a display panel at the University of Fort Hare's 'Centenary Exhibition 1916 - 2016' displayed in the De Beers Centenary Gallery. The exhibition was compiled by the University of Fort Hare and Urban Brew Studios in 2016. Submitted by William Martinson