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BiographyAshley La Grange
"My guiding principle is to work hard and live within my means. My father died when I was seven and my mother’s inheritance was embezzled, so she had to work…
BiographyHarriet Ngubane
Harriet Ngubane was born in 1929 at Inchanga, a rural area near Pietermaritzburg, kwaZulu-Natal (KZN). She was brought up as a Roman Catholic but grew to…
BiographyBaldwin ‘Ben’ Sipho Ngubane
Dr Baldwin ‘Ben’ Sipho Ngubane was born on 22 October 1941 at the Inchanga Roman Catholic Mission in Camperdown, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal - KZN). He…
BiographyFrances Rix Ames
Frances Rix Ames was born in Pretoria, Transvaal (now Gauteng), on 20 April 1920. Her father deserted the family when she was still an infant, leaving her…
ArticleNapoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte. Source: www.historywiz.com A new absolute ruler After the fall of Robespierre in 1794, a new group of people took over the government…
The Afrikaanse Handelsinsituut
The Afrikaanse Handelsinsituut (AHI – in English the Afrikaans Commercial Institute) was formed during WWII to create Afrikaner businesses and represent their…
Article1970s: Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa
Teachers and learners should note that there are many links on this site which deal with the depth and breadth of the Black Consciousness Movement in South…
BiographyDJ Ready D (Deon Daniels)
Deon T Daniels aka DJ Ready D, was born in District Six, Cape Town on 11 December 1968, before the residents there were forcibly removed. Ready D and his…
BiographyOmar Badsha
Omar Badsha was born in Durban, Natal (now known as KwaZulu-Natal) in June 1945. He grew up in a working-class Indian Muslim family, which is part of the…
BiographyJanet Mary Cherry
Janet Mary Cherry was born in 1961 in Cape Town, where she was raised. Janet comes from a family committed to social justice. Her father, Robin, the Dean 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…
BiographyRuth First
Journalist, academic and political activist, Ruth Heloise First was born on 4 May 1925. She was the daughter of Jewish immigrants Julius and Matilda (neé…
ArticleIndigenous medicine and traditional healing
Isangomas and inyangas are the two main types of indigenous or traditional healers in South Africa. Isangomas Isangomas are spiritual healers and are…
ArticleBlack Community Programmes (BCP)
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, after the banning of the ANC and PAC, the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) resuscitated the anti-apartheid struggle in…
Article1960s: The Civil Rights and Black Power movements
Introduction It is important to note that South African events do not occur in a vacuum, as we are part of a large continent and a much larger world…
Dr William Fehr (1892-1968), collector of art as history
The name of Dr William Fehr should be familiar to many of those who have visited Castle Good Hope in Cape Town at least once during the last fifty years. Young…
BiographyJane Gool
Jainub Jane Gool – Tabata was born in Cape Town on 19 March 1902 to Yusuf and Wageda Gool, the sixth of nine children. Her father, an immigrant from India,…
ArticleThe influence of apartheid
The Ndebele and the apartheid state When the Nationalist Party was elected to power in 1948 by a minority of the white electorate, their platform promised…
The Struggle Over Land, The Basotho lose out
This section looks at the rise of the Basotho kingdom in the 19th Century. The people involved in this were the Basotho, the Boers and the British. Of these,…
ArticleLife in Sophiatown
As population in the freehold townships swelled, overcrowding and rack renting became the order of the day. Black property owners in Sophiatown were themselves…
BiographyJabulile Nyawose
Jabulile Nyawose and her husband Petrus Nyawose worked long hours for Black Allied Workers Union (BAWU), focusing on delivery to members and paying attention…
Zarina Maharaj Biography by Sarah Rahimi
This article was written by Sarah Rahimi and forms part of the SAHO and Southern Methodist University partnership project Zarina Maharaj Biography …
ArticleANC Origins and Background
The African National Congress (ANC) was formed in 1912 as a result of many grievances. This included black dissatisfaction with the South Africa Act of 1910…
ArticlePopular resistance and police brutality in democratic South Africa
The apartheid era was characterised by different resistances such as the Sharpeville massacre, Vaal and the East Rand in 1985 and Soweto uprising of 1976. The…
ArticleBlack Consciousness and 16 June – The birth of a new generation
The Black Consciousness philosophy gained most of its support in the secondary schools and universities. The role played by the Black Consciousness Movement …
ArticleReactions to the formation of a republic
Different sections of the South African community reacted to the formation of the republic in different ways. The fact that the republic had now been achieved…
PlaceKwaMashu
The development of KwaMashu Township, in the KwaZulu-Natal province and located some 19km north of Durban, resulted from the mass resettlement of the slum…
ArticleHistory Grade 10 - Topic 3 Contextual Overview
While colonialism and slavery flourished in the 18th century, the foundations of modern democracy were also being established. It is important to consider the…
BiographyAbdul Samad Minty
Abdul Samad Minty was born on 31 October 1933 in Hartebeesfontein, Northern Transvaal (now known as Limpopo Province). Minty grew up in Johannesburg where he…
BiographySibongile Susan Mkhabela
The youngest child of Mozambican immigrants, Sibongile (Bongi) Susan Mkhabela (nèe Mthembu) grew up in Zola, one of the poorest areas in Soweto, Transvaal…