Healdtown Comprehensive School

Healdtown Comprehensive School is a Methodist school located near Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, was established in 1855. It adopted its current name in 1994, having been known for most of its history as "Healdtown". The school was founded by John Ayliff, a Wesleyan Methodist missionary from England. It closed in 1865 and reopened in 1867 as a center for theological and teacher training. In 1880, the theological school relocated, leaving the Teacher Training School to continue at the original site. Girls were first admitted in 1898, and a high school course was introduced in 1925. The government assumed control of the school in 1956 following the Bantu Education Act of 1953, although the hostels remained under the management of the Methodist Church. By 1967, 761 students were utilizing the hostels.

Prominent former pupils include:

• Nelson Mandela (from 1937) and his youngest brother^{[ who? ]}
• Robert Sobukwe (1924 - 1978) founded the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)
• Raymond Mhlaba, ANC leader
• Archie Mafeje, South African anthropologist and activist. ^[1]

References

1. Bank, Andrew; Swana, Vuyiswa (2013), Bank, Andrew; Bank, Leslie J. (eds.), "'Speaking from Inside': Archie Mafeje, Monica Wilson and the Co-Production ofLanga: A Study of Social Groups in an African Township", Inside African Anthropology: Monica Wilson and her Interpreters, The International African Library, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN   978-1-139-33363-4 , retrieved 28 December 2022

• Methodist school survives challenges over 150 years
• D. G. L. Cragg: Healdtown Institution. in: Nolan B. Harmon (ed.): The Encyclopedia of World Methodism. The United Methodist Publishing House, Nashville 1974, pp. 1101f
• Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Abacus, London 2005, pp. 43–50

32°43′55″S26°42′18″E / 32.73194°S 26.70500°E / -32.73194; 26.70500