SAHO global search

1896-1948

Abdulla Ismail Kajee

Abdulla Ismail Kajee was born about 1896; Kajee was a politically moderate Moslem businessman and the dominant figure in the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) from…

B-0008226

1928-2016

Clarence Mlami Makwetu

Clarence Mlami Makwetu was born on 6th December 1928 in Hoyita, in the Cofimvaba district, Transkei. He was the second of five children of Minah and Gqongo…

B-0008410

1942-2018

Gerald Patrick Kearney

Gerald Patrick ‘Paddy’ Kearney was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) on 28 August 1942. He was educated at Catholic schools and for some…

B-0125558

1928-2013

Phyllis Naidoo

Phyllis Naidoo was born in Estcourt, Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal) on the 5 January 1928. She was the daughter of Simon David, a teacher and principal. His…

B-0008734

1930-1978

Sewsunker ‘Papwa’ Sewgolum

“Papwa” Sewsunker Sewgolum was born in 1930, into a family of poor sugarcane labourers in Natal. He started working at an early age, and as a young boy,…

B-0009023

1962

Greg Marinovich

The first pictures Marinovich took of a news event were of Archbishop Desmond Tutu when he led a church service in downtown Johannesburg in 1985 to protest the…

B-0008447

1940-2012

Matlakana Philemon Tefu

Philemon Matlakana Tefu was born in 1940 and grew up in the township of Riversdale in Pretoria. In 1954 his family was forcibly removed from the area to…

B-0085151

Pauline Podbrey

Pauline Podbrey was born as Pauline Podbrez in Lithuania. She arrived with her family in Durban in 1933 at the age of eleven, although her father had come to…

B-0068314

1841-1926

John Xavier Merriman

John Xavier Merriman was a politician, businessman, and the last Prime Minister of the Cape Colony before the four provinces became the Union of South Africa…

B-0008546

1927

Ayesha Bibi “Asa” Dawood

Ayesha Bibi "Asa" Dawood was born in Worcester, Cape Province on the 31 January, 1927 to an Indian Merchant and a Malay woman. As a young girl, Asa (as she was…

B-0007976

1937-2021

Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim

Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim was born in Durban on 1st July in 1937,  the second of five children. When he was a few months old Ebrahim's mother became ill and he…

B-0008038

1895-1960

Sorabjee Rustomjee

Sorabji Rustomjee, son of Parsee Rustomjee, was born in Durban on 25 December 1895. He went to India to study and soon after returning to South Africa, crossed…

B-0068389

1939-2012

Sedick Isaacs

Sedick Isaacs was born in 1939 and grew up in the Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, Western Province (now Western Cape). He was the second eldest in a family of four…

B-0080352

1927-1974

James Kantor

James Kantor was born on 26 February 1927 in Johannesburg to Abraham Kantor, a lawyer and Pauline ‘Polly’ (Braude) Kantor. James Kantor was one of Johannesburg…

B-0066324

1918-2016

Kobera Manual

Aunty Kobera Manual of Ocean View died at the age of 98 on Wednesday 27 July 2016. In 2009 I interviewed her at her home in Ocean View, when she shared some…

B-0121850

1956

Richard Steele

Richard Steele was born to a Scottish father and a South African mother, in Pretoria, in 1956. His father emigrated to South Africa at the end of the Second…

B-0074123

1943-2020

Devikarani Priscilla Jana

Devikarani Priscilla Jana was born on 5 December 1943, in Westville, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), to a middle class Indian family.[i] From an early age Jana…

B-0120811

1948

Timothy Peter Jenkin

Timothy Peter Jenkin was born in 1948, in Cape Town and educated at Rondebosch Boys' Prep and Boys' High School,[1][2] matriculating at the age of 17.[3] …

B-0008202

1939

Chief Malebogo

Malebogo (Kgalusi Seketa Masilo Ratshatsha Malaboch) was chief of the Bahananwa chiefdom, a group of the Tswana peoples. Lebogo led the Bahananwa to the…

B-0008415

Anna Tempo

Tempo started off working by looking after Henrietta Schreiner’s nephews. She soon converted to Christianity and began helping Schreiner with her welfare work…

B-0009128

Robert Moffat

Robert Moffat was born on 21 December 1795 in Ormiston, East Lothian, Scotland. His parents were not wealthy. He was father-in-law to the missionary-explorer,…

B-0098782

1936-2009

Jeanette Eleanor Kasrils

Eleanor Kasrils was born in Scotland in 1936.  She came to Durban as an infant. In March 1960, Ronnie Kasrils, later, her husband, visited Durban, to visit his…

B-0008230

1944-1989

David Joseph Webster

David Webster was born in 1944, and grew up in the copper belt mines of Northern Rhodesia where his father was a miner. His family later immigrated to South…

B-0009218

1980

Mmusi Aloysias Maimane

Mmusi Aloysias Maimane was born in Krugersdorp, Transvaal (now Gauteng) on 6 June 1980 to Ethel and Simon Maimane but grew up in Dobsonville, Soweto, Transvaal…

B-0125899

1946

Chief Hendrik ‘Hennie’ van Wyk

Hendrik ‘Hennie’ van Wyk was born in Vredendal, Cape Province (now Western Cape) on 14th July 1936. His childhood witnessed the final days of colonial rule and…

B-0084122

1898-1969

Nana Sita

Please note: this is an extract from E.S. Reddy collection of articles. Nana Sita was born in Matwadi, a village in Gujarat, India, in 1898, in a family…

B-0009073

1903-1938

Wolf Kibel

Wolf Kibel was born in Grodzisk, near Warsaw, Poland on 16 December 1903. As a young boy Kibel was preoccupied with carving. His father’s death in 1911 brought…

B-0008258

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

1865

Chief Bhambatha kaMancinza Zondi

Chief Bhambatha (sometimes spelled Bhambada) was born in Mpanza near the town of Greytown, Natal Colony. He was the son of Chief Macinga of the abakwa Zondi…

B-0007819

1892-1975

Haile Selassie I

Early years The 225th and last Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie was born in Ethiopia in a region called Ejersa Gora on 23 July 1892. His birth name given…

B-0098558