SAHO global search

1949-2004

Matome Maponya

… entrepreneurial activities. By the age of 13 he was doing a roaring trade, buying and selling sweets and useful knick-knacks, such as combs, to his fellow…

B-0008440

1934

Abdullah Ibrahim

… South Africa. Born Adolph Johannes Brand, he converted to Islam in 1968 during his pursuit for a more peaceful and fulfilling spiritual life. Ibrahim is…

B-0122637

1961

Dali Tambo

… two sisters, Nomathemba and Tselane Tambo. When Tambo was a baby, his parents were exiled. He arrived in England on 15 … in West Sussex in the United Kingdom…

B-0122793

1903-1988

Alan Stewart Paton

… KwaZulu Natal on 11 January 1903. His father, James Paton, a Scottish immigrant and civil servant, came to South Africa in 1895 and his mother, Eunice Warder…

B-0067897

1931-1964

Suliman “Babla” Saloojee

… eastern Transvaal, now Mpumalanga. Babla was compelled to leave home in order to gain a basic education. After completing his education he worked as worked…

B-0064871

1928-2017

Edward 'Eddie' John Daniels

… was situated on the slopes of Table Mountain. Daniels had a number of jobs in the 1940s, including work as a delivery boy in Cape Milliners, a messenger boy…

B-0094071

1933

Rita Alice Ndzanga

… October 1933, the third child of Isaac and Alina More in a village called Mogopa near Ventersdorp, western Transvaal … in Sophiatown . At the age of seven…

B-0068232

1945

Achmad Cassiem

… teacher, Sadiq Isaacs, was arrested. Isaacs was considered to be the mastermind behind the manufacturing of bombs and … interrogated by the security police…

B-0079929

1925-2015

Ruth Mompati

… passed Standard 6.  After completing standard 6, she had to work for a year in Vryburg before going to the college. She worked for a white family, looking…

B-0068085

1950-2015

Virginia Engel

… have three daughters, Tania, Kim and Liza. Her exposure to apartheid injustices and economic exploitation as a child influenced her to take part in the…

B-0008047

1881-1965

Margaret Roach Killie Campbell

… own words, she acquired "an enthusiasm for History, and a love of historical places".  She was a book collector and antiquarian who built up a private…

B-0007917

1954

William Andrew ‘Willie’ Hofmeyr

… at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where he completed a BA in Economics (1976), an MA in Economic History (1984) … were the African National Congress (ANC)…

B-0068071

1790-1868

King Mzilikazi

… Mzilikazi (meaning The Great Road), was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom … Africa). The son of Matshobana whom many had considered to…

B-0068162

1583-1663

Njinga Ana de Sousa

… historians and missionaries would emphasise her conversion to Catholicism and her participation in the slave trade. … certain, however, is that Queen Njinga…

B-0123373

1952

Oupa Joshua Gqozo

… is the son of Anna and Fikile Joel Gqozo. His father was a skilled labourer and religious minister. At his young age Gqozo was sent away by his parents to…

B-0008121

1910-2002

Bettie du Toit

… Bettie Du Toit was born on 15 July in 1910, on a farm in the former Transvaal Province. She was orphaned at … she was 18 months old. This resulted in her…

B-0008034

1945

Paul Stopforth

… “Drawing is one way of articulating my relationship to the world.” Paul Stopforth is a painter and graphic artist who works in oil, gouache, ink, … Technical…

B-0009104

1954-1982

Topsy Madaka

… both passed away in 1990. In 1969, his family relocated to KwaZakhele Township. He received his primary education at … attending there he had an accident…

B-0068165

1920-1995

Harry Themba Gwala

… was born on 30 July in 1920 near Piettermarizburg.He was a politician and teacher, Gwala known as Munt'omdala or The … students was Moses Mabhida  secretary,…

B-0008136

1927-2023

Blanche la Guma

… each one got her share without doing herself more. We had to go two, three o’clock in the morning to get our place in … lots of Party literature and could be…

B-0080449

1945

Reverend Allan Aubrey Boesak

… Kakamas, Northern Cape, one of eight children. His father, a schoolteacher, died when Boesak was six years old. He was raised in Somerset West.  As a child…

B-0007862

1920-1991

Jonas Dinous Matlou

… he was very active in the ANC'S unsuccessful campaign to forestall the removal of Africans from the area, which … city. In December 1956 Matlou, sometimes…

B-0008490

1944

Subbiah Moodley

… where he worked, most of his life.   His father was a poorly paid waiter at the Durban Country Club and his mother was a housewife. His mother lived to a…

B-0124725

1923-1986

Moses Mabhida

… Thornville near Pietermaritzburg on 14 October 1923, into a poor family which was later forced off the land. Mabhida … ninth grade in 1942. After leaving…

B-0008353

1957-1990

Teboho “Tsietsi” Mashinini

… Jabavu, Soweto. Mashinini was the second son of Ramothibi, a lay preacher in the Methodist Church, and Nomkhitha … started at the Amajeli crèche in 1963. He…

B-0008474

1924-2020

Enuga Sreenivasulu Reddy

… of the South African freedom movement for more than half a century. He played a central role in promoting international sanctions against South Africa and…

B-0082253

1919-2000

Jim Bailey

… Sir Abe Bailey and Lady Mary Bailey. He grew up on a country estate outside Oxford where he enjoyed the … upper class, but later rebelled against what he…

B-0007807

Esmé Berman

… Esmé Berman, a Jewish South African art historian, author and researcher, … at the University of Witswatersrand in 1946 and completed a degree in Visual Arts…

B-0123473

1929-2017

Emma Thandi Mashinini

… the early 1930s, she and her family were forcibly removed to Orlando in Soweto ; however her parents managed to … her youngest child was two years of age,…

B-0008471

1956

Murphy Morobe

… on 2 October 1956 in Soweto. When he was young he spent a lot of time with his uncle, a Minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and … family. He…

B-0008647