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ArticleThe development of Music in South Africa timeline 1600-2004
1600s In the Dutch colonial era, from the 17th century on, indigenous tribes people and slaves imported from the east adapted Western musical instruments…
ArticleAlbertina Sisulu Timeline 1918 - 2011
1918 21 October Nontsikelelo Thethiwe was born in the village Camama in the Tsomo district of the Transkei to a very large family. Circa 1926 Albertina…
ArticleDr Alfred Bitini Xuma Timeline 1893-1998
1893 Alfred Bitini Xuma is born, the seventh child born of Abraham and Elizabeth Xuma, an aristocratic Xhosa family living in Manzana Village in the Engcobo…
EventJean van der Poel dies in Cape Town.
Jean Van der Poel was a historian and teacher who played an important role in the South African Teachers' Association and undertook several major historical…
BiographyAbdool Karrim Essak
Abdool Karrim Essak was born in 1925 in India. He was the third child of Fathima and Ishaq Hashim. His father was an adventurer and left his family to seek…
Afrikaner Newspapers and the newspaper industry from 1830
Afrikaner newspapers were essential supports for Afrikaner nationalism, and from the 1870s onwards they were used to mobilise Afrikaners, and after 1914 to…
ArticleThabo Mbeki (1942 - ) Timeline
Historical Context to Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki 1932 Epainette Moerane (Ma Mofokeng Clan Name) Meets Govan Mbeki at Taylor Street Secondary School. 1935 …
“White ladies [do not] push heavy skips”: Examining NUDW and CCAWUSA organising of occupational categories in the retail and distributive trade in the late 1960s and 1970s by Bridget Kenny
This paper was submitted to the 1973 Durban Strikes Celebrating 50 Years Conference Paper proposal for the CCAWUSA and Independent Socialists Panel …
BiographyStephen Zelwane Nkadimeng
Stephen Zelwane Nkadimeng was one of the founders and key leaders of Fetakgomo (an organisation of migrant workers and peasantsof Sekhukhuneland). On the last…
BiographyMhlabunzima Maphumulo
Mhlabunzima Maphumulo was born on 6 September 1949 and not much is known on the location of his birth or his childhood. At the age of 24, Maphumulo inherited…
BiographyMakholeka Matthews Meyiwa
Matthews Meyiwa was born on 24 August 1924 in Georgedale, near Hammersdale in Natal (now KwaZulu Natal). He was born to George and Anne Meyiwa who were peasant…
BiographyDavid Moiloa
David Moiloa, a flamboyant, amusing orator often at the rear of events, had been imprisoned in Johannesburg during the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He was the…
BiographyZindziswa “Zindzi” Nobutho Mandela
Zindziswa “Zindzi” Nobutho Mandela was born on 23 December 1960 in Soweto to South African struggle icons Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. It…
BiographyLeonard Tebogo Tume
Leonard Tebogo Tume, known as Norman Nkosi, was born on 10 April 1957 in Galeshewe, Kimberly. He attended Barkly Road High School and after he left school in…
BiographyPaula Ensor
Paula Margaret Ensor was born in the early 1950s in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu Natal).In 1971 Ensor completed her undergraduate degree in economics at the…
BiographyColleen Lombard
Colleen Lombard (previously known as Colleen Rayson), an anti-apartheid activist, former political detainee, and treason trialist, was born in Wynberg, Cape…
ArchiveAll That Glitters - The glitter of gold by Emilia Potenza
… to sink shafts hundreds of metres beneath the ground. By 1906 the Robinson Deep Mine just off Eloff Street in …
ArticleThe History of LGBT legislation
Introduction Discriminatory, separate and oppressive, these are words that were used to explain South Africa’s Apartheid regime, which officially lasted from…
BiographyOprah Winfrey
Daughter of Vernon Winfrey by Vernita Lee (May 2, 1935 - November 22, 2018), a former maid. She was raised as the daughter of Vernon Winfrey, a coal miner,…
ArticlePass laws in South Africa 1800-1994
Slaves at the Cape were forced to carry passes. This made it easier for their owners and the local authorities to control their movements. The first time Pass…
Biography of Caiphus Semenya
Caiphus Semenya is a South African composer, musician, and arranger that became known for his musical work while living in Southern California during South…
BiographyNithianandan ‘Elvis' Ganese Govender
Nithianandan Ganese Govender (Elvis) was born on 1 November 1958 in Esperanza, a village on the south coast of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal – KZN), on the eastern…
EventElectrically powered units replaced Johannesburg's horse-drawn trams
… electric tram line commenced service on 14 of February 1906. Electric trams had been proven to be an efficient means …
ArticleColonial history of Nelspruit
Nelspruit lies in the Lowveld, in the valley of the Crocodile River just below the great eastern escarpment of the Transvaal. Long before it acquired a…
ArticleA Short History of ESKOM, Part 1 (1923-2001)
… in the early 1900s. It was started by Cecil John Rhodes in 1906 (himself a diamond mining magnate) and aimed to provide …
Indian South Africans timeline 1950-1959
Indian South Africans Timeline: 1950-1959 1950 A.K.M. Docrat, a popular activist, was named under the Suppression of Communism Act. He was jailed for thirty…
Biography of Lionel Ngakane by Rod Reyna
Abstract Lionel Ngakane was a filmmaker, a writer, a director, an advocate and a political activist. Ngakane served South Africa during the apartheid era…
Liberation organisations
UDF The United Democratic Front (UDF) was a non-racial alliance of about 400 national, regional and local organisations. It was launched in Cape Town in 1983,…
ArticleYouth and the National Liberation Struggle
The participation of young people in the liberation struggle preceded the student uprising of June 16, 1976. Before the establishment of the African National…
BiographyVilla Baker
Villa Baker was born on 12 March 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, while World War I was still raging . She grew up in Brakpan, East Rand Transvaal …