Jessie Soga: The Xhosa-Scottish Suffrage Campaigner Glasgow Should Remember

Some Glasgow stories are hidden in plain sight. They sit behind library windows, old meeting halls, street names, forgotten photographs and half-remembered campaign meetings. Jessie Soga’s story is one of them. Born in South Africa in 1870, raised in Scotland, and active in Glasgow’s women’s suffrage movement, Jessie Soga was a singer, teacher, organiser and campaigner. She used her voice in more ways than one: as a professional contralto singer, as a fundraiser, and as someone who helped build support for women’s right to vote in Scotland.

Her name is not as widely known as it should be and not as much as our other Jessie, Jessie Stephen - where you can read about in our blog on Jessie Stephen. But in recent years, Jessie Soga has rightly begun to receive more recognition as one of the most fascinating figures in Glasgow suffrage history.

Who was Jessie Soga?

Jessie Margaret Soga was born in South Africa on 21 August 1870. Her father was Reverend Tiyo Soga, a major figure in South African religious, cultural and intellectual history. Her mother, Janet Burnside, was a Scottish missionary who had met Tiyo when he studied theology in Glasgow. Jessie’s father died when she was still a baby. After his death, Janet brought the family to Scotland, where Jessie would grow up, study, perform and eventually become involved in the campaign for women’s votes. Jessie became a professional singer and music teacher. Her musical talent was not just part of her personal story — it became part of her activism. At a time when women were fighting to be heard politically, Jessie used her voice, her organising skills and her public presence to support the suffrage movement in Glasgow and beyond.

Jessie Soga and Glasgow’s Women’s Suffrage Movement

Jessie Soga was a strong supporter of women’s right to vote. She has been described as the only documented woman of colour actively involved in Scotland’s suffrage movement, making her place in Glasgow history especially important. In the early 1900s, Glasgow was a major centre for suffrage campaigning. Across the city, women organised meetings, raised funds, gave speeches, distributed literature, marched, challenged politicians and built networks of support. The movement was not made up of one single group or one single style of protest. It included constitutional campaigners, militant activists, organisers, fundraisers, speakers, writers, artists and performers. Jessie’s contribution sat powerfully within this wider movement. She was not best known for direct militant action. Instead, she helped build the campaign through organisation, performance and fundraising — the practical, public-facing work that kept movements alive.

The Hillhead Branch of the Women’s Freedom League

One of the most important Glasgow connections in Jessie Soga’s story is Hillhead.

In February 1908, Jessie became a founder member of the Glasgow branch of the Women’s Freedom League. Its inaugural meeting took place at Hillhead Burgh Halls, which stood where Hillhead Library stands today. That detail matters. It places Jessie’s activism into a real Glasgow landscape. This was not history happening somewhere else. It was happening in the west end of Glasgow, in public halls, meeting rooms, streets and social spaces that many Glaswegians still pass every week. The Women’s Freedom League had broken away from the Women’s Social and Political Union, partly over questions of leadership and tactics. The League was still bold, visible and determined, but it placed great emphasis on organisation, campaigning and civil resistance. Jessie was also connected to the Women’s Social and Political Union — the organisation most commonly associated with the Suffragettes. But her own activism appears to have centred on building support, raising money and using her talents to strengthen the cause.

How Jessie Soga Used Music to Fight for Women’s Votes

Jessie Soga’s musical career was central to her public life. As a professional singer and teacher, Jessie understood the power of performance. She used that power to support the suffrage cause in practical and imaginative ways.

In March 1908, she helped organise a major musical event in Glasgow to welcome Scottish Suffragettes who had been released from Holloway prison. Holloway became one of the most infamous prisons associated with the suffrage movement, and events welcoming released campaigners were more than social gatherings. They were acts of solidarity, publicity and political support.

Jessie also organised a series of Café Chantants to raise funds for the movement. These events mixed music, performance and sociability with activism. They show us that political campaigning does not always look like speeches from a platform or protest in the street. Sometimes it looks like a room full of people, a programme of songs, tickets sold, money raised and a community brought together around a shared cause.

She also organised entertainment for the Women’s Social and Political Union’s Scottish Exhibition and contributed money from her concert earnings and teaching fees to support suffrage events in London. In other words, Jessie did what good organisers have always done: she used the skills she had, the networks she knew and the opportunities available to her to move a cause forward.

Why Jessie Soga’s Story Matters Today

Jessie Soga’s story matters because it widens the way we understand Glasgow’s past.

Women’s history is too often told through a small number of familiar names. Black and mixed-race history in Scotland is also too often treated as marginal, recent or separate from the “main” story. Jessie Soga challenges both of those assumptions.

Her life connects South Africa and Scotland, music and politics, Glasgow and the global story of rights, representation and equality. She reminds us that the campaign for women’s votes was not only fought by the most famous figures. It was built by organisers, fundraisers, artists, teachers and community members who gave their time, talent and money to the cause.

She also helps us see Glasgow more clearly. The city’s history is not just industrial, architectural or political in the traditional sense. It is also a history of campaigners, performers, migrants, women, workers, radicals and community builders.

Jessie Soga belongs in that story.

Where Is Jessie Soga Remembered in Glasgow?

Jessie Soga died in Glasgow on 23 February 1954 at the age of 83. Her funeral was held at the Western Necropolis Crematorium.

For many years, her story was not widely known. But that has started to change.

In 2024, Jessie Soga was memorialised alongside fellow suffrage campaigner Helen Crawfurd in a stained glass window at Woodside Library. The artwork was created by artist Keira McLean, working with young people from the local community, Glasgow Life and the women’s history organisation Protests and Suffragettes.

This is a fitting tribute. Libraries are places of memory, learning and public access. Stained glass has long been used to honour saints, civic leaders and powerful institutions. To see Jessie Soga and Helen Crawfurd remembered in this way is a beautiful correction: a public celebration of women whose activism helped change society.

If you are interested in women’s history in Glasgow, Woodside Library is now one of the places worth adding to your list.

Jessie Soga, Helen Crawfurd and Glasgow’s Radical Women

Jessie Soga’s memorial alongside Helen Crawfurd also tells us something important about Glasgow.

This is a city with a long tradition of radical women. Women fought for the vote, better housing, better working conditions, peace, education, healthcare, community rights and social justice. Some became nationally famous. Others were remembered mainly by family, neighbours, campaign groups and local historians.

Jessie Soga sits within that wider Glasgow tradition. She was not simply a footnote in the suffrage movement. She was part of the machinery that made activism possible: organising, performing, raising funds, creating events and helping ideas travel.

Her story asks us to look again at the city and ask: who else have we missed?

Why Gallus Pedals Named a Bike After Jessie Soga

At Gallus Pedals, our bikes are named after trailblazing women connected to Glasgow. Some are famous. Many are not nearly famous enough.

Naming a bike after Jessie Soga is one small way of keeping her story moving. Every time someone rides that bike, asks about the name, or reads the story afterwards, Jessie’s life gets another moment in the light.

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This blog is part of a Trailblazers collection, celebrating the lives of women who we decided to name our bikes after! To find out more and click to see some of the other blogs, please click on Trailblazers: The 10 Women who inspired Gallus Pedals. You can hear stories like Jessie Stephen’s on our Glasgow Bike Tours and our Glasgow Walking Tours.

* Disclaimer - The main image was sourced from 'Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-09812 / CC-BY-SA 3.0' no changes were made to the original. A copy of the license for use of this image is available here. The use of this image does not imply an endorsement from the Licensor *

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Anabel Marsh is a volunteer tour guide with Glasgow Women's Library (GWL). GWL now has six women's history walks, three longer trails, and one bike ride, all of which can be downloaded as self-guided tours from GWL's website. Guided walks take place during the summer months and can be booked via the library's events calendar.