The Rev. Dr. E.J. Mqoboli (b circa 1860), born in the Cape, was an important figure in African politics in South Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. He was a founding member of the South African Native National Congress and was elected chaplain-in-chief at its first conference of January 8, 1912 in Bloemfontein. He later served as the first senior chaplain of the African National Congress.

Mqoboli was trained in Healdtown, first as a teacher and later as a minister of the Wesleyan Church. He wrote a number of religious works, including a Xhosa book, Intyilazwi. It was partly for these works that he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by an American university.

Mqoboli is remembered for his effective speaking, preaching and writing skills, as well as his active involvement in the Cape and national executives of the African National Congress.

Stephan Shisizwe Hlophe

Bibliography

T.D. Mweli Skota, The African Yearly Register, Johannesburg: R.L. Esson and Co. Ltd; The Orange Press, 1932; Thomas Karis and Gwendolen M. Carter, From Protest to Challenge. Vol. 4: Political Profiles, Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1977; PeterWalshe, The Rise ofAfiicanNationalism in South Africa: The African National Congress 1912-1952, Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1971.

This article was reprinted from The Encyclopaedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography (In 20 Volumes). Volume Three: South Africa- Botswana-Lesotho-eswatini. Ed. Keith Irvine. Algonac, Michigan: Reference Publications Inc., 1995. All rights reserved.