The Ghost of Equality: The Public Lives of D.D.T. Jabavu of South Africa, 1885-1959. Catherine Higgs. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997. Pp. xiii + 276.^©

The Ghost of Equality chronicles the long and varied life of Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu, one of South Africa’s most distinguished public figures. The book is aptly subtitled "the public lives of D.D.T. Jabavu" since his life encompassed several distinct careers as an educator, African nationalist politician, organizer, writer, and Methodist lay preacher. In Catherine Higgs’s fine biography his profound influence is duly recognized. Her book joins the growing number of biographies and autobiographies that have appeared in recent years illuminating the lives of leading African political figures in South Africa. With notable works now available on Nelson Mandela, Sol Plaatje, Alfred B. Xuma, H.I.E. Dholomo, Z.K. Matthews, and Albert Luthuli, a comparable study of D.D.T. Jabavu is especially timely.

Higgs provides an engaging and well-informed account of Jabavu’s very full public career. Jabavu made his mark as the first African lecturer at the South African Native College (Fort Hare), where from 1916 to 1944 he helped transform what "was little more than a glorified high school" into the preeminent institution for higher learning for black South Africans. During this same time, Jabavu was instrumental in organizing several associations of teachers, farmers, and voters. Perhaps his crowning achievement centered around his cofounding of the All African Convention in 1935, for which he served as president until 1948. In 1943, he also helped establish (and subsequently led) the Non-European Unity Movement. Despite his repeated attempts, Jabavu’s efforts to merge the AAC and NEUM with the African National Congress in a broad opposition alliance never came to fruition. In 1949, recognizing that his moderate approach to political protest was at odds with the more radical and assertive strategy assumed by the younger generation of African leaders, he retired from active political life. His last years were spent in relative seclusion devoted to writing and making only the occasional public appearance.

According to Higgs, the defining characteristic of Jabavu’s political philosophy was his lifelong commitment to the "Cape liberal tradition." He believed that equal rights ought to be extended to all civilized men irrespective of race. In spite of the many developments that progressively stripped all blacks of basic rights in South Africa during his lifetime, and which effectively rendered this goal unrealizable, Jabavu continued to cling to the Cape ideal. This quixotic strain in his ideological bearings is captured by the book’s title, "The Ghost of Equality." Even late in life, by which time he had grown disillusioned with white liberals and British justice, Jabavu never wholly renounced this improbable dream.

Higgs effectively points to the limits of Jabavu’s political activism. Like many elite, mission-educated South African blacks of his age, Jabavu was unable to jettison his ideological commitment to polite deputations in favor of grass-roots radicalism. Despite the pressure applied by the younger political leaders who entered the ranks of the AAC and other black opposition movements during the 1940s, Jabavu resisted attempts to make the AAC more responsive to a mass membership. As Higgs points out, it is ironic that the guiding principle of Jabavu’s life was fashioned after the famous dictum of Cecil Rhodes--"equal rights to all civilized men south of the Zambesi."

Higgs seems to suggest that many of Jabavu’s shortcomings emanated from his enduring belief that he and other elite Africans were uniquely qualified to lead their African constituencies. For Jabavu, haunted by the ghost of equality, an education grounded in Western cultural values still served as the portal to social and moral "uplift" for a few select Africans.

Higgs deliberately excludes all but the most skeletal details of his personal life, choosing to avoid the "gossip mongering and voyeurism" that might otherwise insinuate itself into an account of his private life. While this decision may be methodologically valid and even laudable in its own right, it leaves the reader yearning to learn something--anything--of what Jabavu was like as a private person. Virtually no mention is made of what activities he pursued in his leisure hours, whom he counted as friends, or of any other such intimate matter. While these issues may be rather pedestrian in nature, their inclusion would have provided a more rounded and vivid portrait of a very complicated man.

Throughout, Higgs balances her account of Jabavu’s contribution to African political and associational life with a solid historical contextualization of his times. She demonstrates a strong grasp of the tensions surrounding his public lives and manages to present an impartial assessment of his foibles and failures as well as his strengths and accomplishments. Higgs’s well-written and engaging account is appropriate for both undergraduates and graduates and represents a valuable contribution to understanding an important South African.