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BiographyColine Williams
Coline Williams was born on 30 May 1967 and grew up in Bonteheuwel, a township in the Western Cape, South Africa. The eldest of three siblings, Coline, her…
BiographyPatric Tariq Mellet
Patric Tariq Mellet was born and grew up in the working class districts of old Cape Town – Salt River, Woodstock and District Six. His family were poor working…
BiographyMokgadi Caster Semenya
Mokgadi Caster Semenya was born on 7 January 1991 to her parents Dorus and Jacob Semenya. She was born in Ga-Masehlong, a village near Polokwane. As a child,…
BiographyNadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer was born in Springs, Transvaal (now Gauteng), an East Rand mining town outside Johannesburg in 1923. Her father, Isidore Gordimer, was a Jewish…
BiographyBenjamin Magson Kies
Benjamin Magson Kies Introduction Benjamin Magson Kies was an important South African political activist and theorist from about the middle of the 1930s…
BiographyKasturba Gandhi
Kasturba Kapadia was born on April 11 1869 in Porbandar, in present day Gujarat. She was the daughter of Gokuldas Makanji Kapadia, a wealthy merchant. Kasturba…
BiographyCecyl Esau
Cecyl Esau was born on 30 September 1955 in Worcester, Cape Province (now Western Cape Province), the youngest of four children. His father was a veteran of…
EventNelson Mandela receives a hero’s welcome in New York
On 20 June 1990 Nelson Mandela was greeted the way New York welcomes its heroes – with mounds of security and miles of tickertape. According to reports, the…
EventFake versions of the new South African banknotes hit the streets
On 7 February 2005, reports were issued of the use of fake versions of the then new South African banknotes. These came hardly a week after the latest currency…
ArticleThe Politics Behind Water
South Africa battles water scarcity as it is one of the thirty driest regions in the world. On average the country receives 500 mm rainfall in a year. [1] As…
ArticleThe African Students Association (ASA)
The African Students Association (ASA) was established on 17 December 1961 in Durban under the auspices of the banned African National Congress (ANC). At the…
ArticleThe Cape Coloured Corps and the First World War
In September 1915, the Union Government offered to raise an infantry battalion of Cape Coloured men for service in the First World War. A strict selection…
BiographyStella Nyanzi
Dr Stella Nyanzi was born in Masaka District, Buganda Kingdom in Uganda on 16 June 1974. Also known as Nnalongo (which means mother of twins), she is a medical…
ArticleThe African Mine workers strike of 1946
Introduction The strike by some 76,000 black miners in 1946 was one of the most significant examples of industrial action by black workers in South Africa…
ArchiveCHAPTER 2 - You only win once by Howard Barrell
- Prioritising armed struggle, January 1974 - June 1976 A struggle is made up of failures essentially. It’s true. You only win once, and that’s at the end. -…
Passive Resistance 1946 - A Selection of Documents compiled by E.S. Reddy & Fatima Meer - Statistical analysis of Resisters
From the book: Passive Resistance 1946 - A Selection of Documents compiled by E.S. Reddy & Fatima Meer Statistical Analysis of Resisters Studying the…
ArticleApartheid Legislation 1850's-1970's
1856-1910 Masters and Servants Acts of 1856 These Acts, which had been passed between 1856 and 1904 in the four territories, remained in force after…
BiographyPeter Clarke
Born in Cardiff Road, Simon’s Town in 1929, as the third born child in a family of six, there was much that his domestic worker mother and Dockyard handyman…
BiographySonja Schlesin
Sonja Schlesin was born in Moscow on 6 June 1888 to Isidor Schlesin and his wife Helena Dorothy (nee Schloss). The Schlesin family later immigrated to South…
ArticleTimeline of the Bulhoek Massacre
1868 Enoch Mgijima is born at Bulhoek, Eastern Cape, the son of Jonas Mayekiso Mgijima. 1907 19 April, Enoch Mgijima, who had already gained quite a…
ArticleCosatu timeline
2010 19 January: (Congress of South African Trade Unions) COSATU affiliate The Food and Allied Workers' Union (FAWU) entered their third week of striking…
BiographyDr Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo
Dr Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo played an outstanding role in the South African liberation movement for over half a century - in persuading the Indian community to link…
PlaceTranskei
An early history of the Transkei area Originally the Transkei included the territories of Idutywa Reserve, Fingoland (Mfenguland) and Galekaland …
ArticleGeneral South African History Timeline: 1980s
1980 is declared the Year of the Charter, marking the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom charter in 1955. 1980 SACTU declares the year as…
BiographyVivian Fitzsimons
For many south africans, the name Fitzsimons will always be linked to snakes - to their diversity and the treatment of their venomous bites. Rightly so, as…
BiographyLillian Diedericks
Lillian Diedericks was born in 1925 in the oldest part of New Brighton township, Red Location (near the railway line), in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape. Her…
BiographyWilliam Cock
In 1849, Cape Town lived up to its reputation for giving visiting vessels a rousing reception. But this was a reception with a difference; it was in fact a…
Indian education in Natal
1865 A report? Native Schools 1865? states that these were day and evening schools.Á‚ There was a Mr Earl?s school on the Isipingo plantation which was…
BiographyDr. Abu Baker Asvat
This article was written by Michelle Hayman and forms part of the SAHO Public History Internship The ‘People’s Doctor’ ‘He struggled to liberate…
BiographyChief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi
Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, son of Princess Magogo Constance Zulu kaDinuzulu, King Solomon’s sister, and Inkosi Mathole Buthelezi, the King’s Prime…