Manasseh Tebatso Moerane

Manasseh Tebatso Moerane (1913-??) was a teacher, political activist, journalist and playwright.

Biography

Born Manasseh Tebatso Moerane in 1913 in the Transkei, he attended Adams College, obtained bachelor's degrees from Fort Hare and the University of Natal and a B.Com. degree from the University of South Africa.

On graduation from Fort Hare, he took up teaching in Natal in 1935 and the same year joined the African National Congress (ANC). In 1955 he left teaching in 1955 and accepted an invitation to travel abroad for the organization Moral Re-Armament[]. Except for one brief trip to South Africa in 1962, he was abroad with MRA from 1955 to 1963, a period in which he was involved with the creation of the play Freedom (1956) and the eponymous film based on that play (1957).

In June 1963 he became editor of The World, a white-owned newspaper for Africans, and in the late 1960s was elected president of the Association for the Educational and Cultural Advancement of African People of South Africa (ASSECA). In the early 1970s he also helped to found the Black People's Convention.