Adams College

The school was founded in 1853 by the Reverend David Rood, missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The school was located on the glebe of the Amanzimtoti mission and was initially named the Amanzimtoti Institute. Rood had arrived in Natal 20 January 1848 and subsequently established the Ifafa mission station. Rood then transferred to Amanzimtoti following the 16 September 1851 death of mission founder the Reverend Newton Adams, M.D. Adams was much revered and in the 1930s the school was renamed Adams College in his honour. She and her son Nembula became part of the Adams home. A historic meeting took place here in 1881 when the Reverend William Cullen Wilcox was asked to talk to a fatherless student called John Dube about his poor behavior at the school. John was the son of the Reverend James Dube who was the Congregational minister in Inanda. In 1887 John Dube was "adopted" by the Wilcoxes and taken to America to study at Oberlin College. Wilcox was to be eventually awarded with a medal by the South African government and Dube was to open his own school, his own newspaper and to be the first leader of what was to become the African National Congress. In 1924 Z.K. Matthews was appointed to be the first black head of Adams College where the activist Albert Luthuli was already a teacher. Both of them were active in politics and Matthews was later to be the Botswana Ambassador to the United Nations and Luthuli was to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Between 1933 and 1945 Edgar Brookes was the Principal of Adams College. He worked closely with John Dube of Ohlange High School to achieve common objectives of improving the lot of native Africans. The school became one of the most important schools for black education. What was then thought to be the end of a leading school was described by ex-staff member George C. Grant in his book, The Liquidation of Adams College. The school was renamed the Amanzimtoti Zulu Training School as the Bantu Education Act, 1953 finally came into effect. Bantu Education was a clearly divisive and paternalist racist campaign that was designed to educate black children for their lowly place in society. Academic subjects were not encouraged as this might deny the country the (black) manual labour it required. The school's name returned to "Adams" when Bantu education was abandoned. During this period the school was poorly cared for during the Apartheid period and buildings were demolished. The school requires some work to achieve its previous successes but in 2007 the school achieved a 93% Matric pass rate in line with Thulani Khumalo the heads priority of "academic excellence". ==Music==

Both what is now Ohlange High School and Adams were involved with a move to return music to its ethnic roots. The move to a traditionalist approach was backed by John Dube who was at Ohlange and Brookes who was the headmaster here. Esau Fika Mthethwea who was a teacher formed the "Lucky Stars" in 1929 as an ethnic vaudeville troupe of typically eight young teachers who had been trained at Adams. Esau died in 1933 but others took over and the Lucky Stars toured throughout the country and they nearly had a tour of Europe. ==Sport==

The "Shooting Stars" are one of the oldest football teams in the Durban area. Football was introduced by the missionary schools and the Shooting Stars were able to challenge similar teams at Ifafa, Umbumbulu and Inanda. All of these teams were well established by 1902. George Copeland Grant was on the teaching staff of Adams College where cricket had been introduced in the 1930s. As "Jackie" Grant he had captained the West Indies Cricket team for four tests before becoming a missionary teacher in 1939. When Grant arrived Ohlange High School already had an established team. Grant raised the status of the game around Durban and made Adams the centre of this new school sport. Cricket was the sport popular with the Indian immigrants to South Africa and the local Durban Indian Cricket Union dated from 1894. ==Today==

The mission station is called Adams Mission and it had a population of 600 in 2001. In 2007 Adams College was amongst several schools recognised as "historic schools". Funding of six million rand a year was earmarked for Adams, Ohlange High School, Inkamana High School, Inanda Seminary School and Vryheid Comprehensive High School to make them academies focussing on Maths, Science and Technology. Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Njongonkulu Ndungane said that they still needed funds and "little has been achieved since democracy". ==Alumni==

• Mangosuthu Buthelezi - Prime Minister and political leader • Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo - writer and poet • Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma - South African cabinet minister • Pius Langa - South African Chief Justice • Anton Lembede - First president of the ANC Youth League • Albert Lutuli - leader of the ANC and Nobel Laureate • Epainette Mbeki - mother of former president Thabo Mbeki of South Africa • Zephania Mothopeng - President of the Pan-Africanist Congress • Oscar Mpetha • Es'kia Mphahlele (1919–2008) - writer and teacher • Thomas Nkobi - ANC Treasurer General 1973–1994 • Joshua Nkomo - Vice-President of Zimbabwe • Milton Obote - president of Uganda • Stanlake J. W. T. Samkange - educationalist, author, historian • Stella Sigcau - South African cabinet minister ==Notable staff==

• Nokukhanya Bhengu - anti-apartheid activist • Edgar Brookes - transformed the school and was an ambassador to the United Nations • George Copeland "Jackie" Grant - West Indies bowler and cricket captain • Reuben Tholakele Guluza - former South African author, musician and educator ==References==