The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
It was a key institution of higher education for black Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub-Saharan Africa, creating a black African elite. Fort Hare alumni were part of many subsequent independence movements and governments of newly independent African countries.
In 1959, the university was subsumed by the apartheid system, but it is now part of South Africa’s post-apartheid public higher education system. It is known for its notable alumni, which include several prominent leaders and heads of state, Nobel prize winners, business and freedom activists such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Robert Sobukwe, Oliver Tambo, Z.K. Matthews, Robert Mugabe, Chris Hani, Dali Mpofu, Sizwe Ntsaluba, and many others.
