SAHO global search

1873-1917

Nokutela (nee Mdima) Dube

Nokutela Dube was the first wife of Reverend John Langalibalele Dube, the first President General of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC- later…

B-0093906

1928-2007

Peter Moonsammy

Peter Moonsammy was born on 25 March 1928 in Market St, Johannesburg. Moonsamy was  the elder brother of Paul and Dasu Joseph who were Transvaal Indian…

B-0144753

1949

Michael Nkolo Maapola

Michael Nkolo Maapola was born in 1949 in Hammanskraal, a township north of Pretoria, Transvaal (now Gauteng Province). He showed an interest in art as a child…

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1908-1993

Dulcie Howes

"Nothing Can Match the singleness of purpose, the foresight, or tenacity through all adversity, of Dulcie Howes ... She achieved in her lifetime what she set…

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1940

John Maxwell Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee was born to German and English parents in Cape Town on 9 February 1940. Coetzee spent his childhood in there, as well as in Worcester, a…

B-0144659

1940-1990

Ernest Cole

Ernest Cole was born on 21 March 1940 as Ernest Levi Tsoloane Kole, in Eersterust, Pretoria. He left school when Bantu Education was introduced, and…

B-0007955

1953-2019

Jonathan Clegg

Jonathan ‘Johnny’ Clegg was born in Bacup, near Rochdale in England on 7 June 1953. His father was from England but his mother was from Southern Rhodesia (now…

B-0094958

1949

Fiona Kirkwood

She was born in Scotland. She obtained a BA(FA) (1971) from the Glasgow School of Art and a MA(FA) from UN. She has lectured in 3D Design, Fashion, Fibre Art…

B-0008262

2012

Mafolisi Mabiya

Mafolisi Mabiya (28) was from Dutywa in the Eastern Cape. He started working for Lonmin in 2007. On 16 August 2012 Mafolisi was killed at scene 2 after being…

B-0121621

1922-2011

Dorothy Cleminshaw

Dorothy Cleminshaw (nee Mullany) was born in Cape Town on the 15th of September 1922. She went to Ellersie College in Sea Point and matriculated with a full…

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1852-1917

Isaac Williams Wauchope

The esteemed teacher and journalist, Samuel E.K. Mqhayi described Isaac Williams Wauchope: “Rev Isaac Wauchope was truly handsome in appearance, a broad-faced…

B-0125334

1963

Robert John McBride

Robert John McBride was born on 6 July 1963 at the segregated Addington Hospital in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), in the section set aside for Coloured…

B-0067934

1913-1996

George Gangen Ponnen

Gangen George Ponnen was born on 1 June 1913 in the district of Rooikopjes near Durban, in the then Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). His father Ponnen, born in…

B-0068316

1942-2020

George Hallett

George Hallett was born in 1942  District Six, Cape Town. He then moved to Hout Bay, Cape Town to live with his grandparents. Thereafter he moved to live in…

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S. S. Tema

S. S. Tema was a Dutch Reformed minister who was a founder and later president of the quasipolitical Interdenominational African Ministers' Federation. On the…

B-0068536

1926-2004

Ethel de Keyser

As a girl she had developed an interest in the arts, and in the 1950s married an up-and-coming actor, David de Keyser, a marriage that lasted 10 years. She…

B-0007984

1919-2000

Jim Bailey

James Richard Abe Bailey was born in London on 23 October 1919. Bailey was the son of Randlord Sir Abe Bailey and Lady Mary Bailey. He grew up on a country…

B-0007807

1943-2009

Winston Monwabisi Ngozi

Winston Monwabisi Mankunku Ngozi was born on 21 June 1943, in Retreat, Cape Town. He was the first-born in a musical family. In the 1960’s the Apartheid…

B-0095437

1916-1968

Leng Dixon

Leng Dixon was born in 1916 in Cape Town. He joined the New Group after his return from the Camberwell School of Art in London from 1937 to 1938 and a period…

B-0008009

1639-1712

Simon van der Stel

Simon van der Stel was born on 14 October 1639 to parents Adrian van der Stel and Maria Leviens. The couple were en route to Mauritius when Maria gave birth to…

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1898-1967

Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli

Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli, Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 1960, was President-General of the African National Congress (ANC) from December…

B-0008345

1920-2017

Violet Sarah Matlou (née Phiri)

Violet Sarah Matlou (nee Phiri) was born on 4 April 1920 in Rustenburg. She started her schooling in Welgeval and completed it at Mmabeskraal under the…

B-0068680

1871-1946

John Langalibalele Dube

John Langalibalele Dube was born at Inanda Mission station of the American Zulu Mission (AZM) in Natal on 22 February 1871 to James and Elizabeth Dube. …

B-0070060

1936

Mama Beshenga

During the 1960s, at the height of the forced removals with the introduction of the Native Law Amendment Act, there was great panic and confusion within the…

B-0007845

Lot Kgagudi Maredi

Following widespread resistance, the Native Affairs Department (NAD) was forced to abolish the Bapedi tribal authority because of a lack of support.  This led…

B-0148453

1938

Dan Sleigh

South African novelist and historian Daniel (Dan) Sleigh was born on 3 November 1938, on a farm, Geelbeksfontein, near Langebaan in the Western Cape. He was…

B-0150095

1917-1957

Henry ‘Mr Drum’ Nxumalo

Henry Nxumalo was born in 1917 at Mvutshini, Margate, in what was then Natal Province. The first child of Lazarus and Josephine Nxumalo, he attended the…

B-0068169

1975

Nicholas Hlobo

Born in 1975 in Cape Town, Nicholas Hlobo grew up in a Xhosa family and attended university at the former Technikon Witwatersrand. Though originally planning…

B-0098966

1921-1984

Peter Becker

Peter Loubser Were Becker was born in Rivonia South Africa the youngest of the three sons of Harold Paley Becker and his wife, Anna Petronella Louw. Becker's…

B-0007838

1948-1985

Thamsanqa “Thami” Mnyele

"For me as craftsman, the act of creating art should complement the act of creating shelter for my family or liberating the country for me people. This is…

B-0008586