Cecilia Makiwane was born in 1880 at the MacFarlane Mission in the Victoria district of Alice, Eastern Cape. Her father, Review Elijah Makiwane, was born at Sheshegu location, Victoria East, and was a teacher and a minister. Her mother, Maggie Majiza of Burnshill was an assistant teacher at Girls" School of Lovedale.
Cecilia attended the Lovedale Girl’s School where she obtained a teacher’s certificate.
They had three children, Daisy (1878), Cecilia (1880) and Ashton (1882). She came from a family of pioneers. In 1898, an experimental nurse’s training school was opened for black nurses at the Lovedale Mission Hospital and in 1902 a three-year nursing course was introduced at Lovedale College.
She enrolled in 1903 and on completion, she was sent to Butterworth Hospital (Eastern Cape) for further training to prepare for the Colonial Medical Council examination.
On 7 January 1908, after passing her exams, Makiwane was registered as the first black professional nurse She resumed work with the Lovedale Hospital and served the hospital until she was granted long leave due to ill health.
A statue of Cecilia Makiwane was erected by the nurses of South Africa at the Lovedale Hospital in 1977. A postage stamp was issued in 1982 to honour local heroine Cecilia Makiwane by the short-lived republic "Ciskei", now known as the Eastern Cape.
The Cecilia Makiwane Nurse’s Recognition Award for health care professionals, was introduced by the South African government in 2002 in her honour.
Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane township in the Eastern Cape has been named after her.
