Nathaniel Impey Honono

Nathaniel Impey Honono (Tshutsha) was born on 21 October 1908, in the district of Qumbu, in the then Transkei (Eastern Cape). He graduated with a BA degree from the University of Fort Hare in 1937.He was headmaster of Nqabara Secondary School in Willowvale for 13 years.In 1945 he was selected president of the CATA and began to use his popularity among his collegues to build a spirit resistance to the government's African education policies. In the 1940s Honono was a member of the Transkei Organised Bodies, an organisation responsible for building unity across political and colour lines. He participated in the inaugural conference of the Non European Unity Movement (NEUM) in Bloemfontein on 16 December 1943.  He was an active member of the All-African Convention (AAC), a federal organisation formed in 1936 to resist the Hertzog Bills which disenfranchised African people in the Cape Province. 

In 1950 he joined the Teachers' League of  South Africa (TLSA),a coloured  organization that also often criticized government policies.He was also an active member of the Cape African Teachers Association (CATA), a radical teacher’s organisation which was affiliated to the AAC and the Unity Movement. Honono served as the president of CATA for many years. Honono, together with his colleague, Alie  Fataar, was responsible for convening a joint CATA  and Teachers League of South Africa (TLSA) conference in Cape Town in June 1952, which was attended by 1 200 teachers from all over the Cape Province.  The conference was called to reject separate Bantu, Coloured and Indian education and to build unity among all teachers.In 1955 Honono was among the many Transkeian teachers fired for objecting to the inferior Bantu Education syllabus,he established his own insurance company based in Umtata. Honono passed away on 31 December 1986.