Xolela Nogqala

Current Fellows: History Department, MA

Xolela Nogqala was born and bred in the Eastern Cape in a small town called Nqqamakwe. This is where he attended his lower grades at up until he had to be enrolled for high school. Like most young people in his area, he had to move to a town believed to have better opportunities. That is how he ended-up in Dutywa in 2011 with the purpose of furthering his education. There he chose to be enrolled for the General stream, where History and Agricultural Sciences stood as compulsory along other subjects. In 2013 he matriculated at the top of his class, but he got rejected at Fort Hare University to study law in 2014. By mid-year of 2014 he moved to Cape Town to look for a job as young-men from rural areas of the Eastern Cape usually do. Excited by the news that he was accepted by the University of the Western Cape to do the Bachelor of Arts, he left his job as the general worker for a particular agent. Out of a variety of modules to choose from he chose to major in History and isiXhosa. Seemingly he was fascinated by studying History and that has helped him to finish his degree within the estimated period of three years. As the first person to attain qualification from an institution of higher learning, he decided to feed his curiosity on History as a discipline by enrolling for an Honour’s Degree in History. He strongly believes that “the only way to challenge constructively how African history has been narrated is through full-time involvement in its production”. His dream of being the history scholar is about to be a reality all endowed to the financial assistance he receives from the Centre of Humanities Research. Let the sky not be the limit, instead reach for the stars son of the soil.