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Pan-Africanism was Peter Abrahams’ Country by Tyler Flemming (Africa is a Country), 13 February 2017
… memoir recounting his childhood in Johannesburg during the 1920s and 1930s, stands as one of the best South African …
ArticleAbstracts presented for the 1973 Durban Strikes Conference
Following is a list of abstracts presented for the 1973 Durban Strikes - Celebrating 50 Years Conference. “White ladies [do not] push heavy skips”:…
EventA UN report estimates the number of people who have HIV/AIDS in Africa at 50,000
A United Nations report estimates the number of people who have HIV/AIDS in Africa at 50,000. The report came five years after the Centre for Disease Control…
The Founder: An Ambiguous Figure by Chris Saunders
… Swazi king at a high profile legal case in London in the 1920s, but that turned out another failure when the Swazis …
BiographyKewpie
Kewpie was a hairdresser and iconic queer figure from District Six. A gender fluid individual who identified by female pronouns, Kewpie was a seminal nightlife…
BiographyBoy Mvemve
Boy Adolphus Mvemve died a very violent death in exile in Zambia in 1974. He was 43 years of age at the time, operating under the nom de guerre John Dube (or…
BiographyElizabeth Komikie Gumede
Recorded as one of the most tortured women political prisoners under the apartheid regime, Elizabeth Komikie Gumede was born in 1921. Gumede served as an…
BiographyLeo Linda Sihlali
Leo Linda Sihlali was born on 9 September 1915 in Butterworth. He went to primary school in Tarkastad where his mother worked as a teacher. On completion he…
ArticlePass Laws and Sharpeville Massacre
Pass laws in South Africa were met with fierce resistance during the 20th century. But earlier forms of passes, had in fact been used in various instances…
BiographySolomon Tshekisho Plaatje
Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was born on 9 October 1876 in the Boshof district of the Orange Free State. His parents were Christians who belonged to the Setswana…
BiographyIsaac ‘Ike’ Osler Horvitch
Isaac 'Ike' Osler Horvitch was born on 9 October 1920, in Cape Town, South Africa. Ike Horvitch's politics were fashioned out of his family's oppressed past…
Francis Zaccharius Santiago Peregrino
Francis Zaccharius Santiago Peregrino was a journalist and public intellectual who, in the early 1900s, challenged notions of Black racial inferiority in the…
BiographySolomzi Ashby Peter Mda
Solomzi Ashby Peter Mda was born on 6th April 1916, in Herschel district, bordering Lesotho. He was the first son of Mildred Mei, a school teacher and…
BiographyZweledinga 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…
BiographyChristopher Ndodebandla Dlamini
Chris Dlamini was born in Benoni, Transvaal, on 10 October 1944, one of the five children of Anna and Gilbert Dlamini, a worker in an electro-planting factory…
BiographyMandla Langa
Mandla Langa was born in Stanger, or KwaDukuza, a town in the Natal Province, now known as KwaZulu-Natal Province. He is the son of a preacher, and he grew up…
BiographyEnver Hassim
Enver Hassim was born in the Transvaal, where he was part of a large family, with two brothers and four sisters. His father made a living as a middleman and…
BiographyAbdul ‘Apamai’ Rahman Dawood
Abdul Rahman Dawood or 'Apmai' as he was affectionately known was born in India to a family of progressive community activists in October 1935. He was brought…
BiographyVincent 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…
ArchiveThe Mission by Denis Goldberg - Foreword by Dr Z. Pallo Jordan
… from London’s East End settled in Cape Town during the 1920s. Their second son, Denis, was born there in 1933. His …
ArticleEnd Conscription Campaign (ECC)
In the late 1970s four young men publicly refused to obey their army call-ups by the South African Defence Force (SADF) and were sentenced to up to 18 months…
ArchiveHow the apartheid regime burnt books – in their tens of thousands, 24 October 2018
On the advice of the State Librarian one fine day in the 1970s, a truck transported thousands of books and magazines from Pretoria’s Central Police Station to…
ArticleWomen’s Role in the Negotiations by Nicole Dellaportas
This article was written by Nicole Dellaportas and forms part of the SAHO and Southern Methodist University partnership project Women’s Role in the…
ArticleAfrican National Congress Youth League (ANCYL)
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) was established on 2 April 1944, by Anton Lambede (who became the League’s first President), Nelson Mandela,…
EventThe South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) introduces its first national news service
The history of broadcasting in South Africa can be traced back to 1923, when the first wireless broadcast was made in Johannesburg. By April 1927, an hour of…
The Role of Women in the Struggle against Apartheid, 15 July 1980
… some women. The organising of women began in the 1920s, principally in the laundry, clothing, mattress, … that endured in spite of the new labour legislation…
BiographyWessel Johannes “Hansie” Cronje
Wessel Johannes "Hansie" Cronje was born in Bloemfontein on 25 September 1969 to Ewie and San-Marie Cronje. He attended Grey College in Bloemfontein, a…
BiographyJohannes Nkosi
A martyr for the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA and SACP after 1953), was the son of Jacobina Nkosi (no details of his father could be traced). Nkosi…
ArticleAfrican National Congress Timeline 1940-1949
… antagonistic relationship between the two parties in the 1920s and 1930s. Two significant developments took place in …
BiographyRaymond Arthur Dart
Raymond Dart was born on 4 February 1893 in Toowong, Brisbane, Australia. He attended university in Queensland and Sydney. In 1920, Dart pursued further study…