SAHO global search

1953

Fanie Jason

Fanie Jason was born on the 15 May 1953, Heathfield, Cape Town. Under the South African Group Areas Act, Jason's family was forced to move to the black…

B-0008199

1934

Abdulhay Jassat

Abdulhay Jassat became involved in politics as a member of the  Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC), which was an affiliate of the Congress Alliance in the 1950s…

B-0008200

1905-1992

Helen Joseph

Helen Beatrice May Fennell was born in Easebourne, United Kingdom, in 1905. She grew up in London, with her parents and brother, Frank. She graduated with a…

B-0008217

1896-1948

Abdulla Ismail Kajee

Abdulla Ismail Kajee was born about 1896; Kajee was a politically moderate Moslem businessman and the dominant figure in the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) from…

B-0008226

1938

Ronald (Ronnie) Kasrils

Ronald Kasrils was born in Yeoville, Johannesburg, on 15 November 1938.  His grandparents were immigrants from Latvia and Lithuania, who had fled from the…

B-0008229

1936-2009

Jeanette Eleanor Kasrils

Eleanor Kasrils was born in Scotland in 1936.  She came to Durban as an infant. In March 1960, Ronnie Kasrils, later, her husband, visited Durban, to visit his…

B-0008230

1929-2017

Ahmed Mohamed "Kathy" Kathrada

Ahmed Mohamed "Kathy" Kathrada was born on 21 August 1929, to Indian immigrant parents in Schweizer Reneke, a small town in Western Transvaal [now North West…

B-0008231

1955

William Kentridge

"I am interested in a political art, that is to say an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain ending - an art (and a politics) in…

B-0008242

1922-1976

Jerry Dibanhlele Khumalo

Born in 1922, Jerry Dibanhlele Khumalo was a clothing designer and cutter. He served prison sentences as a volunteer in the 1952 Defiance Campaign in Germiston…

B-0008255

1905-1978

Moses Mauane Kotane

Moses Mauane Kotane was born at Tamposstad in the Rustenburg district of the western Transvaal on 9th of August in 1905, Kotane came from a devoutly Christian…

B-0008274

1925-1985

Alex 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…

B-0008291

1894-1961

James la Guma

James Arnold la Guma (Jimmy) was born on 23 August 1894 in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (now Free State Province). A trade unionist and political activist,…

B-0008292

1952

Lesley Lawson

One of the founding members of Afrapix, Lesley Lawson was born in Durban in 1952. She matriculated from Durban Girls College and attended the University of…

B-0008303

Potlako Leballo

He was born in 1924 near Mafeteng, Basutoland (now Lesotho), the son of an Anglican minister. In 1940, while a student at Lovedale, he concealed his age and…

B-0008304

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

1948-2026

Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick "Terror" Lekota

Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick "Terror" Lekota was born in Kroonstad, Orange Free State (now Free State Province) on 13 August 1948, into a working-class family. He…

B-0008313

1929-2026

Leon Levy

Leon Levy was born on 7 August 1929 in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng Province), South Africa, to Mary and Mark Levy, immigrants from Lithuania. Levy and…

B-0008326

1929-2021

Norman Levy

Born on 7 August 1929 in Johannesburg to Mary and Mark Levy, immigrants from Lithuania, Norman Levy and his twin brother, Leon (a founding member and later the…

B-0008327

1898-1967

Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli

Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli, Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 1960, was President-General of the African National Congress (ANC) from December…

B-0008345

1923-1986

Moses Mabhida

Moses Mbheki Mncane Mabhida was born in Thornville near Pietermaritzburg on 14 October 1923, into a poor family which was later forced off the land. Mabhida…

B-0008353

1918-2009

Elizabeth 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…

B-0008367

1962-2007

Humphrey Phakade “Pax” Magwaza

Humphrey Phakade ‘Pax’ Magwaza was born on 4 April 1962, in Lamontville, one of the oldest Durban townships, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal – KZN).  He was one of…

B-0008374

1950-2008

Yunus Ismail Mahomed

Yunus Ismail Mahomed was born in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) on 30 December in 1950 to Amina and Ismail Mahomed.Mahomed grew up in Jeppe, attending…

B-0008382

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

1955

Caesarina Kona Makhoere

Caesarina Kona Makhoere was born near Pretoria in 1955. Her father was a policeman and her mother worked as a domestic worker.  At a young age she was forcibly…

B-0008402

1928-2016

Clarence Mlami Makwetu

Clarence Mlami Makwetu was born on 6th December 1928 in Hoyita, in the Cofimvaba district, Transkei. He was the second of five children of Minah and Gqongo…

B-0008410

1936-2018

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Early YearsNomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela was born, the fifth of nine children, in the village of Mbongweni, Bizana, in the Transkei on 26 September 1936…

B-0008431

1926-1982

Poomoney Moodley

Poomoney Moodley was born in Mooi River, Natal on 28 June 1926 to Ramsamy Dharamalingam Moodley and Kanniamah Moodley; who themselves were children of Indian…

B-0068090

1926

Kesval “Kay” Moonsamy

Kesval “Kay” Moonsamy was born on 5 July 1926. He was active in the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) from the mid-1940s onward. In the early 1950s he served as…

B-0068092

1897-1961

Elias Phakane Moretsele

Little is known about Elias Moretsele's youth. At an early age he moved to Johannesburg where he joined the South African Native National Congress (SANNC,…

B-0068097