Sofonia Machabe Mofokeng

Sophonia Machabe Mofokeng (1923–1957) was the first scholar in South Africa to acquire a PhD in Sesotho from the University of the Witwatersrand. Despite an academic milieu that was not friendly to advancement of Black African scholars and scholarship, Mofokeng wrote three books: a stage play, Senkatana (1952), an anthology of essays entitled Leetong: On Pilgrimage (1952) and Pelong Ya Ka (published posthumously in 1962). Mofokeng died at a young age of 34, after periodic hospitalizations.