SAHO global search

1945

Achmad Cassiem

Imam Achmad Cassiem was born 12th of December in 1945 and grew up in an Islamic environment. He became politicised in the 1960s when the Pan Africanist…

B-0079929

1925-2015

Ruth Mompati

Ruth Mompati was born on 14 September 1925 in the village called Khanyesa in the North West Province. She was the daughter of Seli Seichoko and her father was…

B-0068085

1945

Reverend Allan Aubrey Boesak

Allan Aubury Boesak was born at Kakamas, Northern Cape, one of eight children. His father, a schoolteacher, died when Boesak was six years old. He was raised…

B-0007862

1952

Oupa Joshua Gqozo

Joshua Oupa Gqozo was born in Kroonstad on 10 March 1952. He is the son of Anna and Fikile Joel Gqozo. His father was a skilled labourer and religious minister…

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 three when her father died. Her mother had passed…

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, charcoal,…

B-0009104

1927-2023

Blanche la Guma

Blance la Guma (nee Blanche Herman) was born on 30 November 1927 in Athlone, Cape Town, Western Cape, the youngest of five children. Her parents were actively…

B-0080449

1923-1986

Moses Mabhida

Moses Mbheki Mncane Mabhida was born in Thornville near Pietermaritzburg on 14 October 1923, into a poor family which was later forced off the land. Mabhida…

B-0008353

1944

Subbiah Moodley

Subbiah Moodley is probably the most anonymous of the early uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC), recruits. He…

B-0124725

1924-2020

Enuga Sreenivasulu Reddy

Enuga Sreenivasulu Reddy affectionately known as ES Reddy has been active in support of the South African freedom movement for more than half a century. He…

B-0082253

1957-1990

Teboho “Tsietsi” Mashinini

Tsietsi Mashinini was born on 27 January 1957 in Central Western Jabavu, Soweto. Mashinini was the second son of Ramothibi, a lay preacher in the Methodist…

B-0008474

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

Esmé Berman

Esmé Berman, a Jewish South African art historian, author and researcher, was born in 1929. She enrolled at the University of Witswatersrand in 1946 and…

B-0123473

1956

Murphy Morobe

Morobe was born 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…

B-0008647

1953-2022

Jessie Yasmin Duarte

Jessie Yasmin Duarte was born on 19 September 1953, one of nine children, in Newclare, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) to Julie and Ebrahim Dangor. She…

B-0125869

1921-2005

Mahomed “Chota” Motala

Mahomed Motala was born in Dundee on 14 June 1921. In 1938 Motala matriculated at Sastri College and studied medicine in Bombay, India, from 1939. It was at…

B-0008657

1899-1996

Mary Agnes Stainbank

Mary Agnes Stainbank was born in 1899 on the farm Coedmore in Bellair, Durban. She was educated at St. Anne's DSG at Hilton. Stainbank was an artist way ahead…

B-0066295

1880

Sir Ernest Oppenheimer

Ernest Oppenheimer was born on 22 May 1880 in Friedberg, Germany. He was the son of Edward Oppenheimer, a cigar merchant. Oppenheimer began his working life at…

B-0008856

1934

Reverend Mcebisi Osman Xundu

The Reverend Mcebisi Osman Xundu was born on the 11 June 1934, at Engcobo, Transkei, one of seven children of Regina and Amos Xundu.  He attended the local…

B-0068895

1897-1962

Richard Granville Baloyi

Richard Granville Baloyi was born on 1897 and lived in Alexandra north of Johannesburg in 1922. His first job was that of a taxi driver but in 1925 he became a…

B-0007816

1920-2000

Fred Carneson

Fred Carneson was born on 13th January 1920 in Goodwood, Cape Town to Anthony and Annie Carneson, a poor Catholic working class family, the sixth of nine…

B-0007921

1934-2021

Ronnie Govender (Sathiseelan Gurulingam Govender)

Sathieseelan Gurulingam Govender (more popularly known as Ronnie Govender) was born on 16 May 1934 in Cato Manor, Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal).  His…

B-0124457

1950

Charles Nupen

Charles Nupen was born on 19 June 1950 in Durban. After starting a medical degree at the University of Natal, he switched to studying for a Bachelor of Arts…

B-0094714

1922

Sir Sydney Kentridge

Sydney Kentridge was born in Johannesburg in 1922. He matriculated in 1938 at the King Edward VII High School. In 1941, he obtained a BA degree at the…

B-0086256

1917-2013

Mfanasekaya Pearce Linda Gqobose

Mfanasekaya Pearce Linda Gqobose was born on 7 August 1917 at Kwa Mdingi, in King Williams Town. He completed his primary schooling at Kwa Mdingi Lower Primary…

B-0077426

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

1919-2008

Noni Jabavu

Helen Nontando (Noni) Jabavu was born in 1919 in the Eastern Cape into a literary family. From the age of thirteen, she was schooled in England, and continued…

B-0008191

Nomathamsanqa Xoliswa Ngwevela

While in exile, Ngwevela procured a Diploma in Political Science at the Pushkin International Institute in Moscow in October 1980. From September 1986 to…

B-0068250

1956

Mavivi Myakayaka-Manzini

Mavivi Manzini was born in Alexandra Township, outside of Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) in 1956, and then moved to Soweto. Manzini suffered from polio…

B-0096368

1851-1931

Rev. Mangena Maake Mokone

Reverend Mangena M Mokone was born at Bogaga, Sekhukhuneland (Transvaal) in 1851. His mother was daughter of Sephate and was from a royal lineage. In 1863, his…

B-0008615