Biography Index

King of the Zulus (1828 – 1840)

Playwright and political activist

Political activist

King of the Zulus

Former President of the Democratic Republic of Congo

King of Xhosaland

A member of The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and the Young Communist League (YCL)

Business person, NIC member, Joint Secretary of the SAIC 

Political activist

first women professor and Head of Department at then Natal University (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal) medical school, first women Dean of Natal University’s medical faculty and first woman President of the Health Professional Council of Sou

Photographer

Teacher and professor of mathematics.

Director, actor and playwright

Lawyer, political prisoner, Rivonia Trialist and exile

Made King of the Zulu’s once he defeated Dingane with the help of the Voortrekkers. He reigned as King from 1840 to 1872 and was succeeded by Cetshwayo.

Member of the African National Congress (ANC); Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and secretary of the Congress of Democrats in the early 1960s. Kasrils was involved in MK military operations, and served as Deputy Minister of Defence (1994 -1999). Kasrils was also

ANC, Congress of Democrats, SACP and Umkhonto we Sizwe member, geologist

Business person, teacher, National organiser for the ANC and 1956 Treason trialist

A member of the African National Congress (ANC) and The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM)

chief of a group of San

Artist

Artist

Teacher, author, director of Diakonia, political detainee, Executive member of the Natal UDF, Chair of the Denis Hurley Centre Trust, chair of the Gandhi Development Trust, and advisor to KZN Christian Council 

Trade unionist, African National Congress (ANC) activist and 1956 Treason Trial defendant and politician

Chief

sculptor, teacher

Member of the African Resistance Movement, ANC and SACP.  

Artist

South African artist, film-maker, and performer

World War II soldier, Advocate, Queens Counsel, British Knighthood Recipient and Recipient of the South African Order of the Baobab in Gold 

President of Kenya and prominent independence leader

Political activist

Chartered accountant, Entrepreneur, Property developer, Resort operator and Founder of the Sun City.

Member of the PAC, Robben Island prisoner

Artist

member of the African National Congress, accountant and economist

Banished person.

Artist

Political activist, regional secretary of PAC

Poet, political activist, author, lecturer, exile, member of the African National Congress

Teacher, President of the Black Peoples Convention, recipient of The Order of Luthuli in Silver 2003

Banished person

Banished person

Trade unionist, member of the ICU, SACP and Secretary General the ANC

Seretse Khama was the chief of the Bama-Ngwato tribe, Bechuanaland (now Botswana). 

Editor, Politician, Professor of Economics, Indian High Commissioner of India to South Africa from 1941 to 1944

Member of the ANC and SACP, SACTU activist and killed in the Matola Raid

Member of the Black Consciousness Movement, Director of Study Project on Christianity in an Apartheid Society (SPROCAS) and Vice Chancellor of Technikon Natal as well as Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Durban Institute of Technology

Businessman, MK member and TIC activist.

Chairperson of the South African Premier Soccer League Team, Orlando Pirates Football Club, Chairperson of the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) and a former Vice-President of the South African Football Association (SAFA). He was also the Chair

Sculptor and print-maker

Political Activist  Democracy.

ANC member and political activist

Journalist and photographer for Drum magazine

South African actress best known for her leading roles in the feature films Sarafina! (1992) and Yesterday (2004)

Composer, linguist, teacher, professor, helped create the new South African national anthem, produced first opera by a Black South African, pioneered the innovative system of dual notation, recipient of the Order of the Star of South Africa

Footballer, captain of the national South African soccer team and football coach.

Writer, women's rights campaigner, ANC member and politician

Immigrant painter who is partly responsible for introducing expressionist oil painting to South African artists

Member of the NEUM and TLSA, Editor of the Educational Journal, teacher political activist, political detainee, member of the Harold Cressy Alumni Society. 

Teacher, political activist, advocate and founder of the NEUM and member of the TLSA.

Civil rights activist in the United States of America

Photographer

Artist

SASO Vice-president for Cultural Affairs, teacher, psychologist, newspaper columnist

1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and of Broome, also called Viscount Broome of Broome, Baron Denton of Denton, Baron Kitchener of Khartoum and of Aspall (from 1898), and Viscount Kitchener of Khartoum, of the Vaal, and of Aspall (from 1902), British field marshal, imperial administrator, commander in chief during the South African War, Secretary of State for War during World War I

Mechanical engineer, member of the SACP and the MK High Command

Member of Congress of Democrats and British Communist Party, member of the technical unit of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and founder of the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group.

Musician

 Anti-Apartheid Activist, leader within and member of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) and South African Christian Institute. He was detained under apartheid laws an

artist, teacher

Attorney, teacher and founding member of the NEUM

Political activist, journalist, member of the SACP and ANC and banned person

Sculptor

Founder of the Co-operative Wine Growers' Association of SA, or (KWV)

Medical doctor and surgeon who pioneered techniques of diagnosing suspected leprosy, worked with leprosy patients in various parts of Africa and did much to dispel myths associated with the spread of the disease

Member of the Liberal Party, founder member of the Black Consciousness Movement and the Black Peoples’ Convention, Honorary president of Socialist Party of Azania trade unionist, teacher, Roman Catholic layman. 

South African rugby union player, DHL Stormers and Springbok captain.

South African painter, art teacher, critic and curator whose work explores apartheid

A member of the South African Communist Party (SACP)

Trade unionist and women’s rights activist

Farm hand, lithographer, graphic artist, photographer, author and Associate of the Royal Photographic Society

Trade unionist, women organiser and Member of Parliament 

Human rights and gender activist, member of the African National Congress and deputy chairperson and a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party, MEC for Welfare in the Eastern Cape member of the National Executive Committee

Member of the ANC and commander of the MK in the Border Region of the Eastern Cape. 

Photographer and graphic artist

sculptor, sangoma

Banished person

General secretary of the Communist Party of South Africa and Treasurer General of the African National Congress 

A fundraiser for Inkululo and the Guardian.

Sculptor

Reverend, banned person, lecturer, Regional Director of the Christian Institute, Recipient of the Grand Counsellor of The Order of the Baobab in Silver for his excellent contribution to the struggle against the injustices of the Apartheid system

Political activist 

Political activist and ANC member

Advocate, academic, judge of the Appellate Division and the Constitutional Court, Chair of the Electoral Commission and the Independent Electoral Commission.

Apartheid activist, Umkhonto we Sizwe operative

Major literary figure, author, poet and dramatist, war correspondent in WWII and anti-government activist 

Journalist and poet

Voortrekker, politician, President of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR) from, prominent social and political figure, key figure in conservation efforts and the establishment of the Kruger National Park.

Sculptor

Sculptor

Banished person

Artist

Artist

Former Miss South Africa, television personality, fashion icon, media mogul, business woman, philanthropist and wife to businessman Romeo Kumalo.

reporter, founder member of the Union of Black Journalists in South Africa, exiled person, lecturer, International Education Program Coordinator at Phelps Stokes Fund in New York, Projects Director for the Africa Fund and the American Committee on Africa, Director of the United States Desk at South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs,  Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations

Sidney Kumalo was an art instructor, sculptor and painter.

Poet, academic and founder of the and-apartheid movement in Britain.

Acclaimed linguist, scholar, award winning writer of short stories and poetry, human rights activist and community leader.

South African actress and producer

Businessman, journalist and founding member of the African Democratic Party

President of Ghana (1957 - 1966)