Kate Manye and her sister Charlotte were members of the African Native Choir which tour Britain and Ireland 1891-1892 (the sisters stayed into 1893), singing for Queen Victoria and other notables. Back in South Africa she worked as an interpreter and assistant for the American Dr McCord, and his daughter Margaret McCord produced, with the elderly Kate, The Calling of Katie Makanya: A Memoir of South Africa (New York: John Wiley, 1995). On pages 51-52 are some comments on their experiences in Dublin:

“After their first concert in Dublin, a West African woman from the university, with skin as black as Katie’s, came up to speak to them. Her name was Miss Steele…” She was a medical student.

Nothing seems to have been noted on this pioneering black woman doctor – or has it?

The African Choir involved J. H. Balmer – see website page 006; and in England the South Africans met and were influenced by the Bohee brothers – see website pages 055 and 244.