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Working Life - Factories, Township and Popular Culture 1886 - 1940 - Themes to Think About
From the book: Working Life - Factories, Township and Popular Culture 1886 - 1940 by Luli Callinicos Themes to Think About This Feature has shown how working…
Legislation, Dissent, and Violence in Sophiatown under Apartheid
AbstractThis article traces the major segregation laws in South Africa that acted as precedent for the 1954 Native Resettlement Act. This apartheid law…
ArticlePopular struggles in the early years of Apartheid, 1948-1960
Historians recognise the significance of popular struggles over the past 100 years. But debates among historians about their relationship to formal political…
A growing urban African population
As Johannesburg expanded, so did its need for African labour. After the First World War, a large number of factories were being established and were growing in…
BiographyGeorge Gangen Ponnen
Gangen George Ponnen was born on 1 June 1913 in the district of Rooikopjes near Durban, in the then Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). His father Ponnen, born in…
BiographyShadrack Fuba Zibi
Chief of the Mbuto (Mbuthweni) section of the Hlubi group of tribes, was the son of Fuba III and the grandson of Zibi II. He was educated at Love dale…
BiographyAbraham H. de Vries
The South African writer, Abraham Hermanus de Vries, was born on Tuesday the 9th of February, in 1937, in a small town and agricultural centre of the western…
Article1946 Mine Workers Strike timeline 1867-1987
1867 Diamonds discovered in Orange Free State and Kimberley. 1867 Diamond mining begins in Griqualand West. 1872 Introduction of pass laws to control…
Polokwane the Segregated city
Contents The Segregated City, 1910-1948 The Apartheid City A decade of Turbulence, 1976-86 Ructions within Afrikaner Politics Forced removals in the…
Rustenburg the Segregated city
Rustenburg the Segregated city Towards Union The Afrikaner character of the town persisted after Union in 1910, and there was little to attract other…
BiographyJacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma
Early LifeJacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (Msholozi – his praise name) was born on 12 April 1942 at Nkandla in northern Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal). He is the first…
BiographyFrank Alexander Landman
Raised in the close knit community of Dowerville, Port Elizabeth (P.E.), Frank was the youngest of three sons and the third of the six surviving children of a…
BiographyDr. Neil Hudson Aggett
Neil Hudson Aggett was born in Nanyuki, Kenya on 6th October 1953, the first-born child of Aubrey and Joy Aggett. He began his schooling in Kenya, and when his…
BiographyNontsizi (Cizama, Imbongikazi yakwaCizama) Mgqwetho
Virtually nothing is known about the life of the first and only major female poet to write in Xhosa, apart from what is revealed in her writings, almost all of…
BiographyChris McGregor
Christopher McGregor was born on 24 December 1936 in Somerset West in the Western Cape. He grew up in Blythswood in the Transkei (now a part of the Eastern…
BiographyDr Essop Essak Jassat
Dr Essop Essak Jassat, the second of three children, was born on 5 October 1932 in 11th Street Vrededorp, Johannesburg. Both of his parents came from India…
BiographyJonathan Shapiro
Born in Cape Town in 1958 and also known as Zapiro. Could not imagine a career in cartooning, so studied architecture at University of Cape Town. Could not…
BiographyPenny Siopis
This biography was written by SAHO in collaboration with Artthrob Modus Operandi Penny Siopis is foremost a painter, although she frequently works with video…
BiographyGraham Goddard
Graham Goddard was born in 1956 in Woodstock, Cape Town. His parents were factory workers in the Woodstock/Salt River area. Goddard lived most of his life on…
BiographyElizabeth Mafekeng
Elizabeth Mafekeng was born in 1918 in Tarkastad and attended school until Standard 7. Living conditions in her birthplace forced her to leave for Paarl in…
BiographyDaniël Francois Malherbe
Daniël Francois Malherbe was born on 28 May 1881 in Dal Josafat in the Cape Colony, to P. J. Malherbe, a founder of the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaners …
BiographyAlex la Guma
Alex la Guma is known as one of South Africa’s foremost activist writers, both for his reportage and fiction writing depicting the oppressive measures of…
BiographyGeneral Jan Christiaan Smuts
General Jan Christiaan Smuts was born near Riebeeck West in the Cape Colony on 24 May 1870. His mother taught him the elements of reading and writing in…
ArticleGrade 5 term 1 timeline: Hunter-gatherers and herders in Southern Africa
8985 BCE The San are believed to have first populated Southern Africa 15 CE Khoikhoi herders migrated…
ArticleSouth African Coloured People Organisation (SACPO)
Like all other Black ethnic groups, the Coloureds also fell victim to segregation and repressive legislations enacted by Colonial and successive governments…
ArticleSouth Africa in the 1970s
During the early 1960s, civil society was disempowered and social movements were repressed. Although the capacity for social movements to impose change…
BiographyWilliam Sinclair Winship
William Sinclair Winship was born on 18 March 1927, in Edinburgh, Scotland. When he was a few months old, his parents moved to Mpwapwa, Tanzania, before…
BiographyJohn Langalibalele Dube
John Langalibalele Dube was born at Inanda Mission station of the American Zulu Mission (AZM) in Natal on 22 February 1871 to James and Elizabeth Dube. …
BiographyWendy Heather Woods
Wendy Heather Woods (neè Bruce) was born on 5 February 1941 in Mthatha (formerly Umtata), Transkei (now Eastern Cape Province). An outstanding pupil in school,…
BiographyAbdullah Ibrahim
South African musician, Abdullah Ibrahim was born on the 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa. Born Adolph Johannes Brand, he converted to Islam in 1968…