Godfrey I.M. Mzamane was born near Matatiele in the Transkei in 1909 and obtained B.A. and M.A. degrees from Fort Hare. He taught at St. Peter's Secondary School in Johannesburg and at schools in the Cape, then became a lecturer in Bantu languages at Fort Hare, eventually becoming professor. In the late 1940s he served as secretary of the Cape ANC and was a member of the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee at the time of the Programme of Action. He later became politically inactive.