It is believed that Manche Masemola was born around 1913, in Marishane, South Africa. She grew up with her parents, two older brothers, a younger sister named Mabule, and a cousin named Lucia. She was not sent to school, but worked with her family on their farm. Her family was not Christian, but rather followed traditional local religious practices. The Christian community in their region was very small, and was looked upon by most people with much suspicion.

In 1919 Fr. Augustine Moeka of the Anglican Community of the Resurrection established a mission at Marishane. Manche Masemola and her cousin Lucia first heard Moeka preach as a result. She was eager to learn more, and began to attend worship services and classes at the mission twice a week.

Soon she expressed a desire to be baptized, but her parents tried to forbid her. When their prohibitions failed to dissuade her, she was beaten. On a number of occasions, Manche Masemola remarked to Lucia and Moeka that she would die at her parents’ hands and be baptized in her own blood. Then, on or near 4th February 1928, her mother and father took her away to an isolated place and killed her, and buried her by a granite rock on a remote hillside. She was about fifteen years old.

Although she was not yet baptized, the church has historically recognized catechumens who died before they could be baptized as being baptized by their desire for baptism. In 1935 a small group of Christians first made a pilgrimage to her grave. Larger groups followed in 1941 and 1949. Now, hundreds visit the site every August. In 1975 her name was added to the calendar of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa.

Manche Masemola is one of the twentieth-century martyrs whose statues are displayed at Westminster Abbey. More than 40 years after her daughter’s murder, her mother was also baptized into the church in 1969.