John Tengo Jabavu (11 January 1859 – 10 September 1921) was a political activist and the editor of South Africa's first newspaper to be written in Xhosa.

In 1881, Jabavu was invited by Reverend James Stewart of the Lovedale Mission School to become the editor of the institution's Xhosa-language journal, Isigidimi samaXhosa ("The Xhosa Messenger").

His writings tended to focus on the threat of growing Afrikaner nationalism and his demands for equal rights for Cape Colony's Xhosa population.

[2] Nonetheless, he later lent his powerful support to the more liberal leaders of the Cape's South African Party against the repressive policies of Rhodes's "Progressives"[3] In 1884, Tengo Jabavu founded his own newspaper, Imvo Zabantsundu ("Black Opinion"); a year later, he married Elda Sakuba, who would die in 1900, leaving four sons.

[4] In the 1890s, Tengo Jabavu's movement Imbumba ("The Union") faced a growing rival, the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) led by Walter Rubusana.