Abstract

WHITE, Tim. The expulsion of Mary Calata: The disturbance at St Matthews missionary institution, March 1945. Historia [online]. 2008, vol.53, n.1, pp.82-101. ISSN 2309-8392.

In March 1945 there was a student rebellion at St Matthews, an Anglican college in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The students were protesting against the Shepstonian system of authority which existed at the institution, whereby certain students had the power to control and discipline other students. This protest, therefore, divided students into loyalists and rebels. The police refused to intervene and so the institutional authorities closed St Matthews and expelled a large number of students. A committee of senior staff was then set up to probe this disturbance. It produced a report which emphasised that many of the ringleaders were radicalised before coming to St Matthews. However, there were also systemic failures within the institution itself. The case of one expelled student, Mary Calata, is highlighted. Her father, James Calata, was a senior member of the African National Congress and a senior clergyman within the Anglican Church. He fought a campaign to have his daughter reinstated and this brought him into conflict with his bishop, Archibald Cullen. This teases out the tensions that often existed within the Church over the question of politics and religion.

Keywords : African education; Anglican Church; Archibald Cullen; James Calata; Mary Calata; missionary education; protest politics; student unrest.

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