SAHO global search

1919-1976

Dr James Lowell Zwelinzima Njongwe

James Lowell Zwelinzima Njongwe was one of the most dynamic leaders of the African National Congress(ANC) after its turn to mass action in the 1950s, Njongwe…

B-0068251

1969

Jonathan Neil Rhodes

Jonathan Neil Rhodes, better known as Jonty, was born in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal on 27 July 1969. He grew up in the picturesque Pietermaritzburg town…

B-0008952

1935-1988

Sydney Alex Kumalo

Sydney Alex Kumalo was born in the middle of the colonial conquest of Africa, the same year that Benito Mussolini’s foreign armies invaded Abyssinia (later…

B-0122872

1944-2017

Buchi Emecheta

Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta Obe ‘Buchi Emecheta’ was born in the Nigerian city of Lagos on 21 July in 1944 to Jeremy Nwabudinke, a railway worker and Alice …

B-0122744

1925-2000

Alfred Baphetuxolo Nzo

Alfred Nzo was born on 19 June 1925 at Benoni, Transvaal, into a family of five children. His father was a clerk at Modder B mine, which was later changed into…

B-0068295

1903-1979

Josie Palmer

Josephine ‘Josie’ Palmer (Mpama) was born in 1903 in Potchefstroom, Transvaal (now North West Province), to Georgina Garson and Stephen Bonny Mpama, an…

B-0008861

1941-2007

Hilary Mutch

Hilary Mutch (née Hilary Claire) was born on 4 November 1941 in Erith, south-east London into a Jewish family. Her father, a South African worked as a doctor…

B-0095214

1939-1997

Enos Mabuza

Enos Mabuza was born on 6 June 1939 at the Sheba Gold Mine. He attended the Sheba Mine School until Std 4 and moved to Barberton Community School until Std 6…

B-0008354

1938

Noria Mabasa

Noria Mabasa was born May 10, 1938 in Xigalo in the Limpopo Province in South Africa. She received formal education for only one year, having to walk three…

B-0008349

1953

Jeannette Ndhlovu

Jeannette Ndhlovu was born on 2nd October 1953 in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng Province). Ndhlovu obtained her primary and secondary education in South…

B-0008756

Nimrod Boyce Tantsi

Nimrod Boyce Tantsi was born in Johannesburg in 1895, the grandson of one of the founders of the AME in South Africa. His family moved a number of times during…

B-0068535

1952-2006

Thozamile Richard (Thozi) Gqweta

Thozamile Richard  (Thozi) Gqweta was born in Peelton near King Williamstown 1952.The son of a railway worker.He obtained his matric at Mzomhle High School in…

B-0008919

1963

David Tsolwane Uhuru Hlongwane

David Hlongwane was born on 1 January 1963 in the Zwelethemba township of Worcester. He studied at Vuyisile High School, without completing Matric. Looking at…

B-0098953

1969

Lucas Radebe

Lucas Radebe was born on 12 April 1969 in Diepkloof, Soweto. When he was 15 years old, his parents sent him away to Bophuthatswana to avoid the violence in the…

B-0008926

1895-1962

Elliot Tonjeni

Elliot Tonjeni was born in 1895 in the Transkei and later went to Cape Town, where he joined the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and was active in the…

B-0068612

1928-2011

Henry Gordon ‘Squire’ Makgothi

Henry Gordon "Squire" Makgothi was born on 25 December 1928 to Walter Mokowa, a school teacher and Martha Makgothi, a domestic worker,died when he was five. He…

B-0064853

1949

Lefifi Tladi

The thinker, poet, and painter, Lefifi Tladi, was born in 1949 in the culturally vibrant township of Lady Selborne in Pretoria, Transvaal Province (now Gauteng…

B-0122542

1897-1976

Helen Elizabeth Martins

Helen Elizabeth Martins was born on 23 December 1897 in the Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda in the Eastern Cape. She was the youngest of six children and spent…

B-0008456

1950

Jacob Sello (Jackie) Selebi

Jacob (Jackie) Sello Selebi was born on 7 March 1950 in Johannesburg.  Selebi was the African National Congress (ANC) representative to the Soviet Union's…

B-0073823

1916-1965

Dr Arthur Elias Letele

Arthur Elias Letele was born on 2nd October 1915 in Maseru, Lesotho. His father, Elias Letele, was a school inspector. His mother, Catherine, was of Xhosa…

B-0008321

1953

Mosima Gabriel (Tokyo) Sexwale

Tokyo Sexwale was born in Orlando West, Johannesburg as the third of six children of Godlieve and Frank Sexwale. He grew up amid the turmoil of the Black…

B-0009025

1928-1999

Dr. Zacharias “Zac” Johannes De Beer

Zac de Beer was born on 11 October 1928. He was the second of four children of Jean Isobel and Zacharias Johannes de Beer, a medical doctor. He attended the…

B-0007979

1951

Helen Zille

Helen Zille attended school at St. Mary's Waverley in Johannesburg. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. A…

B-0009259

1911-1980

Lillian Masediba Ngoyi

Lillian Masediba Ngoyi was born in Pretoria, Transvaal (now Gauteng), in 1911. She enrolled in a nursing training course, but eventually took up work as a…

B-0068245

1925-1983

Cassim Mohammed Bassa

Mohammed Cassim Bassa the estate agent and community leader was born on 11 August 1925 in India. He was the eighth of nine children of Mohammed Bassa, a…

B-0007834

1943-2008

Oscar Dumisani Dhlomo

Oscar Dhlomo was born on 28 December 1943 at Putellos, Umbumbulu, about 30 kilometers South East of Durban, the fifth of the 11 children of Flora and Isaac…

B-0008001

1929

Selby Themba Ngendane

Selby Themba Ngendane was born about 1929 in the Eastern Cape and attended Fort Hare, where he was active in the African National Congress Youth League during…

B-0068242

Cecil Sols

Cecil Sols worked as a freelance photographer with a collective of social documentary photographers in the 1980s to early 1990s, helping to expose the…

B-0122503

1950-1990

Muntu Myeza

Muntu Myeza was born on 3 December 1950 to Jacob and Julia Myeza in Natal where he also did his early education. Myeza attended part of his senior high school…

B-0121056

1948

Johannes Maswanganyi

  Johannes Maswanganyi was born in 1948 at Msengi Village, near Giyani, Limpopo Province.Although younger than many of the sculptors from rural northern…

B-0008479