SAHO global search

1709-1785

Georg Schmidt

Georg Schmidt was born in Kunewalde on 30 September 1709 as the son of a peasant family. He was converted to Christianity at the age of 16. In 1726, Schmidt…

B-0008995

1920-1969

Eduardo Mondlane

Born in Manjacaze, Mozambique, the son of a tribal chief, Eduardo Mondlane worked for the UN and was also a History and Sociology Professor at Syracuse…

B-0068086

1910-1984

Annie Silinga

Annie Silinga was born in 1910 at Nqqamakwe in the Butterworth district of the Transkei where she completed only a few years of primary school. In 1937 she…

B-0009054

1908-1996

Jean Sinclair

Jean Sinclair was born in 1908 and became involved in politics after the Springbok Legion protested against the National Party’s segregationist bills. She…

B-0068468

1922-1985

John Nyathi Pokela

Pokela was one of the Africanist in the African National Congress Youth League who broke off to found Pan Africanist Congress in 1959. In 1966 he was sentenced…

B-0008902

1925

Gertrude Shope

Gertrude Shope was born in Johannesburg, but grew up in Zimbabwe. She was trained as a teacher, and went on to teach in Natal and Soweto. When she was 29 years…

B-0068449

1917

Elijah Thomas Zondi

Elijah Thomas Zondi was born on 22 October 1917 in Pietermaritzburg to Thomas Zondi, an evangelist and Bellinah Mchunu.  He attended the Burnside Community…

B-0097662

1960

David Dabede Mabuza

David Dabede Mabuza was born 25 August, 1960 in Brondal, Mpumalanga. He matriculated from Khumbula High School. He obtained a National Teacher’s Certificate…

B-0124548

1942

Zweledinga Pallo Jordan

Pallo Zweledinga Jordan was born on 22 May 1942 in B Location, Kroonstad, in the Orange Free State. His father, Dr Archibald Campbell Jordan, was an African…

B-0008215

1921-1968

Todd Tozama Matshikiza

Todd Tozama Matshikiza was the son of Samuel Bokwe Matshikiza and Grace Ngqoyi Matshikiza. They were a family of renowned musicians; his mother was a noted…

B-0008495

1780-1820

Makhanda Nxele

Born Makhanda but also known as Nxele, the itola, he is best known in history for leading the ‘Battle of Grahamstown’ in 1819. Except for his political and…

B-0125321

1881-1971

Reverend Zaccheus Richard Mahabane

Zaccheus Richard Mahabane was born in Thaba Nchu, Orange Free State (now Free Stae Province), on 15 August 1881. His parents were Christians and prosperous…

B-0008376

1915-1976

Johanna (Joey) Hendrina Scheepers

Trade union leader and organizer Johanna Hendrina (Joey) Scheepers was one of the four daughters of Sarel Gerhardus Breitenbach and his wife, Johanna Hendrina…

B-0008992

1935

Satyandranath “Mac” Maharaj

Mac Maharaj was born on the 22 April 1935, the fourth of the eight children of Mr and Mrs NR Maharaj of Newcastle, Natal. He matriculated at St Oswald's School…

B-0065611

1967

Francois Pienaar

Francois Pienaar was born on 1st January 1969 in Vereeniging into a working class Afrikaner family. Although he participated in various sporting activities as…

B-0008886

1944

Graeme Pollock

Robert Graeme Pollock was born on 27 February 1944 in Durban. His father was a first-class cricketer and editor of the Port Elizabeth Herald. Pollock attended…

B-0096457

1932-1988

Johnstone Mfanafuthi Makhathini

Johnstone “Johnny” Mfanafuthi Makhathini was born in Durban on 8 February 1932. He attended school at Adams College in Durban where he trained as a teacher…

B-0094854

1920-1977

Elmon Malele

Elmon Malele was born in Mapulaneng in the Limpopo Province (Transvaal) in 1920. Malele came to Johannesburg in 1943, and stayed in Alexandra township. He was…

B-0008416

1866-1942

James Barry Munnik Hertzog

James Barry Munnik (JBM) Hertzog was born in Soetendal Wellington on the 6 th of April 1866. Hertzog was the eighth child of Johannes Albertus Munnik Hertzog,…

B-0008156

1922-1999

Julius Nyerere

Julius Nyerere was born on the 13th of April 1922 in Butiama village, next to Lake Victoria, in Tanganyika (name given to the British colony in Tanzania’s…

B-0125265

1980

Lindiwe Mazibuko

Lindiwe Mazibuko was born on 9 April 1980 in Swaziland. At the age of six she moved to KwaZulu-Natal with her parents. Her father was a banker and her mother a…

B-0096424

1959-2011

Zimasile Ngqawana

Zimasile Ngqawana affectionately known as ‘Zim’was born in New Brighton a township in Port-Elizabeth on 25 December 1959. He was the youngest of five children,…

B-0095544

1940

Gille De Vlieg

Gille de Vlieg was born Gillian Ruth Hemson in Plymouth, England in 1940 during a Nazi bombing raid on the city. After losing their home in a later bombing…

B-0007997

1949-2015

Clive Edward Butler Rice

  Clive Rice was born on 23 July 1949 in Johannesburg. His education started at St. Johns College and from there to Damelin College in Johannesburg and later…

B-0008956

1930-2018

David Goldblatt

David Goldblatt, one of South Africa’s most famous documentary photographers, is internationally acclaimed for his work. The grandson of Lithuanian-Jewish…

B-0008106

Harry Moyaga

Apart from interaction with artists such as Cyprian Shilakoe (qv.), Bill Ainslie and Fikile Magadlela, it was Moyaga’s mother who played the dominant role in…

B-0008677

1921-2012

Motsamai Keyecwe Mpho

Motsamai Keyecwe Mpho was born to a peasant family in Maun Bechuanaland (now Botswana) on 3 February 1921. His family came from a non-Setswana-speaking ethnic…

B-0008685

1942-1991

Dumile Feni

Zwelidumile Geelboi Mgxaji Mslaba “Dumile” Feni was born on 21 May 1942 in Worcester, Western Cape. His mother died when he was only five or six years old and…

B-0008062

1919-1984

Cassim Amra

Cassim Amra was born in 1919 in Durban Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal).  He attended Sastri College, Durban  where he represented the senior cricket team. Amra was…

B-0095730

1967

Vuyani “The Beast” Bungu

Vuyani Bungu was born on 26 February 1967 in Mdantsane, Eastern Cape, South Africa. He attended the local primary and high school before dropping out at grade…

B-0007898