SAHO global search

1922-2010

Eulalie Doreen Stott

Eulalie Doreen Stott was born in Fish Hoek on 4 August 1922. Stott was the only child and after her parents’ divorce, when she was just three years old, she…

B-0074109

1888-1942

Ruth Alexander

Ruth Alexander was the daughter of a well-known Hebrew scholar, Solomon Schechter. She was educated at schools in Cambridge, England and New York, United…

B-0066410

1917-2004

Villa 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 …

B-0097304

1920-1996

Alcott Skei Gwentshe

Alcott Skei Gwentshe was born in 1920 in Tsomo in the Transkei. A shopkeeper in (Duncan Village township)East London, Alcott Skei Gwentshe played a key role in…

B-0008137

1890-1938

Wilhelmina Louisa Freund

Wilhelmina Louisa Ida (Minna) Freund was born on 17 March 1890 in Holstein, Germany. She was the youngest child of John Freund and Metha Mentzel, German…

B-0008084

1942-2017

Joe “Sdumo” Mafela

Joe Mafela, actor, songwriter and film producer was born on 25 June in 1942 in Sibasa, Limpopo Province. His father worked as a shop assistant in a Chinese…

B-0064872

1955-1983

Thabo Marcus Motaung

Marcus Motaung grew up in Diepkloof in the 1960s and 1970s. His family moved to the Township around the early to mid-1960s. They were part of families forcibly…

B-0085550

1935

Durant Basi Sihlali

Durant Basi Sihlali was born on 5 March 1935 in an industrial area, Germiston, Transvaal, now known as Gauteng Province. Due to harsh living conditions, his…

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Kgosi Abram Ramotshere Moiloa

Kgosi[Chief] Abram Ramotshere Pogiso Moiloa, a key figure in the Bahurutshe resistance of the 1950s, took office in 1932 at the age of 22. He went up ‘to…

B-0094016

1919-1987

James Madhlope Phillips

James Philips was born in Sophiatown into a working class family on 11 December 1919. His father died while he was still young and this had negative socio…

B-0068220

1955

Shirley Gunn

Gunn enrolled for a degree in social work in 1977 and after completion proceeded to study for her Honors degree. While studying for her Honors degree, she…

B-0095599

Billy Paddock

Billy Paddock, of Irish extraction, grew up in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) in the 1950s. He attended Glenwood High School in Durban where he excelled at…

B-0076350

1949-1991

Mhlabunzima Joseph Maphumulo

Mhlabunzima Maphumulo was born on 6th September,1949 Maqongqo distric of Kwazulu-Natal . At the age of 24, Maphumulo inherited the role of Chief of the…

B-0141689

1941

Winston Ntshona

Wintson Ntshona was born on 6 October 1941 in Port Elizabeth. He matriculated from Newell High School where he performed in school plays with John Kani. During…

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Edward Sineke Tyaliti

In a letter to the NAD [Native Affairs Department] Secretary dated 14 August 1958, the CM [Chief Magistrate] claimed that [Kaizer] Matanzima was keen on…

B-0148434

1940-2020

Paul David

Devadas Paul David ( Paul David) was born on 26 August 1940 in Pietermaritzburg, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal - UKZN) into a devout Catholic family.  His…

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Magasvarie Govender

Magasvarie ‘Maggie’ Govender was born in Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), and grew up in Durban Central. When she was eleven years old, due to the Group…

B-0150852

Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyatta was born Kamau to parents Moigoi and Wamboi ”” his father was the chief of a small agricultural village in Gatundu Division, Kiambu District ””…

B-0099749

Poonoosamy Ruthnam Pather

Poonoosamy Ruthnam Pather (PR) was born in Mauritius in 1895.  His grandfather settled in that country after emigrating from Tanjore in India in the 1840s. PR…

B-0068301

14 January1918-1999

Dimitri Tsafendas

Dimitri Tsafendas was the parliamentary messenger who assassinated Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd on 06 September 1966 by stabbing him four times with a…

B-0009157

1918-2013

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Childhood in the Eastern CapeNelson Rolihlahla Mandela was the son of Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Henry Mgadla Mandela, a chief and chief councillor to the paramount…

B-0065300

1958-1995

Nithianandan ‘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…

B-0150804

1947-2006

Maxwell Mduduzi Malinga

Maxwell Mduduzi Malinga, was one of South Africa’s most gifted and beloved fighters in the 1970s and 80s. He was born on 09 November 1947 at Steadville,…

B-0100310

1950

Martin Plaut

Martin Plaut was born in Cape Town, South Africa in May 1950.  His parents were Erwin Plaut and Faith Plaut. His father was a furniture designer who had a shop…

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1885-1970

Kerr Alexander

Early Life: Alexander Kerr was the first of six children born to William and Elizabeth Findlay Kerr. When he was six years old the Kerr family moved to…

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1895-1983

Rev. James Arthur Calata

James Arthur Calata was born into a poor farming family at Debe Nek near King Williamstown. His father James Calata was a Presbyterian and his mother Eliza, an…

B-0007914

1930-2013

Professor Bernard Magubane

Professor Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane was born on 26 August 1930 on a farm near Colenso in Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal). He was the son of labour tenants on a…

B-0095733

1931-2020

Jürgen Schadeberg

Jurgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin, Germany on 18 March 1931. He was raised by his mother, Rosemarie, the only child in a single-parent family of limited…

B-0008991

1923-2013

Reginald (Reggie) September

Reginald September was born in Wynberg in Cape Town on 13 June 1923, the son of Florence, a housewife, and Nicholas September, a carpenter. He first attended…

B-0009020

1953

Mosima Gabriel (Tokyo) Sexwale

Tokyo Sexwale was born in Orlando West, Johannesburg as the third of six children of Godlieve and Frank Sexwale. He grew up amid the turmoil of the Black…

B-0009025