SAHO global search

1931-2018

Samir Amin

Samir Amin was a prominent Egyptian-French Marxist thinker. His work on capitalism, colonialism and (under)development was one of the most important…

B-0125244

1928-1993

Sefofane Samuel "Solly Smith" Khunyeli

Sefofane Samuel "Solly Smith" Khunyeli was born on 18th of Septenber 1928 in Steynsrus,near Kroonstad in the Orange Free State,where his father had a brick…

B-0080403

1910-1990

Gerard Bhengu

Gerard Bhengu was born on 6 September 1910 in Outstation of Mariannhill Mission Station, Centecow, Bulwer district, Southern Natal. Bhengu received his early…

B-0007850

1960-2015

Ohm Collins Chabane

Ohm Collins Chabane was born on 15 April 1960 in Xikundu Village, in Limpopo (then Northern Transvaal). He attended Shingwedzi High School, and at the age of…

B-0007931

1919

Dr. Wilson Zamindlela "Zami" Conco

Wilson Zamindlela "Zami" Conco, the son of a semi-literate but wealthy cattle farmer in the Ixopo district of Natal in 1919, Conco rose to become Luthuli's…

B-0007956

1933-2017

Miriam Tlali

Miriam Tlali was born in Doornfontein in Johannesburg, Transvaal (Gauteng). She grew up in Sophiatown. Miriam wanted to study literature at the University of…

B-0097205

1913-1999

Yetta Barenblatt

Yetta Barenblatt was born on 24 September 1913, in Dublin, Ireland, to Basna and Solomon Malamed.  In 1925, a friend encouraged her to come to South Africa…

B-0007828

1912-1974

Johanna Catharina Cornelius

Johanna was born in Licthtenburg on 27 February 1912 to an Afrikaner family where she grew up. Their family was very nationalistic, with both their father and…

B-0069428

1923-1987

Massabalala (Bonnie) Yengwa

Massabalala Yengwa, was the son of the Zulu labourer who had been jailed during the African National Congress (ANC) anti-pass campaign of 1919. Yengwa was born…

B-0009251

1915-1979

Vera Ponnen

Vera Ponnen (nee Vera Gwendoline Alberts) was born in 1915 in England. She came to South Africa in 1938 as a governess. The next year, she went to Johannesburg…

B-0068317

1943-1987

John Ndevasia Muafangejo

John Ndevasia Muafangejo was born on 5 October 1943 in Etunda lo Nghadi, Ovamboland, Angola. In 1956 Muafangejo moved to die Anglican mission station at Epinga…

B-0008702

1875-1966

Walter Gilbert Wiles

Walter Gilbert Wiles was born in Cambridge, England in 1875. Wiles was one of the five artist-sons of the sculptor Henry Wiles. Of all the five sons, he was…

B-0009227

1938-2016

Judith Mason

Born Judith Seelander Menge on 10 October 1938 in Pretoria, Judith Mason is one of the most well known South African artists. She matriculated from the…

B-0122647

1936-2013

Sathima Bea Benjamin

Sathima Benjamin was born into a humble family in Claremont, Cape Town in 1936. Deeply influenced by the cosmopolitan culture she grew up with in the shadows…

B-0007840

1959-2024

Tito Mboweni

Early LifeAfter completing high school, Tito Mboweni attended the University of the North in Transvaal between 1979 and 1980, where he was registered for a…

B-0008523

1926-2004

Wilfrid Edward Cooper

Wilfrid Edward Cooper was born on 22 May 1926 in Observatory, a suburb of Cape Town, Cape Province (now Western Cape Province) and lived in Mowbray until he…

B-0121280

1967-1985

Sipho Philip Mutsi

Sipho Philip Mutsi died in 1985 at the Odendaalrus police station, he was the youngest detainee to die in police custody at age 17. He was arrested with…

B-0075593

1962

Molatodi Thomas Lehupela

Molatodi Thomas Lehupela was born on 7 September 1962 in Paradys Location, Thaba' Nchu in the Free State Province. He attended Penyang Primary School and was…

B-0008310

1939

Allina Ndebele

Allina Ndebele (nee Khumalo) was born on 10 December 1939 in Ekuhlengeni mission, on the Swart Mfolozi near Vryheid, Natal. Ndebele attended school in the…

B-0008755

1857-1919

William Philip Schreiner

William Philip Schreiner, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, anti-British imperialist, and a proponent for the integration of all ‘civilised men' including …

B-0068394

1892-1973

John Ronald Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State on 3 January 1892. After his father died, Tolkien and his mother went to England…

B-0009152

1956

Chris Ledochowski

Chris Ledochowski was born in 1956 in Pretoria. He grew up in Johannesburg and from 1968 to 1974 he attended Waterford- Kamhlaba, a non racial boarding school…

B-0008305

1959

Andrew Michael Boraine

Andrew Michael Boraine was born in Pietermaritzburg on 18 February 1959.He is the eldest of four children of Alex and Jenny Boraine.His father was the…

B-0007872

1932-2009

Aidan Walsh

Aiden Walsh was born in Durban in 1932. He studied at the Natal Technical College from 1948 to 1950, and at the Hammersmith School of Art, London, from 1956 to…

B-0009217

1923-2014

Nadine Gordimer

Nadine Gordimer was born in Springs, Transvaal (now Gauteng), an East Rand mining town outside Johannesburg in 1923. Her father, Isidore Gordimer, was a Jewish…

B-0008117

1905-1994

Advocate Israel “Isie” Aaron Maisels

Advocate Israel “Isie” Aaron Maisels was born on 19 November 1905 in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng), South Africa. His father, Henry Maisels, had come…

B-0008386

2012

Bongani Mdze

Bongani Mdze (28) was from Jabavu, Mataliele in the Eastern Cape. He began working for Lonmin in 2005. He was the first person in his family to work at the…

B-0121615

1929-2010

Vincent Joseph Gaobakwe Matthews

Vincent Joseph Gaobakwe Matthews born in Durban, on 17 June 1929, Matthews was one of five children of Frieda and ZK Matthews, a professor, academic lawyer and…

B-0008499

Reverend Makhenkesi Arnold Stofile

Makhenkesi Arnold Stofile, the son of Simon Stofile and Miriam Ngcongcobela, was born on 27 December 1944, in the Winterberg District of Adelaide, Eastern Cape…

B-0068486

1905-1988

Bishop Alphaeus Hamilton Zulu

Alphaeus Hamilton Zulu was the only son of Johannes and Miriam Kolo Zulu (nee Hlabisa). His father was a policeman and a farmer. His father died when he was a…

B-0009262