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BiographyLeslie Rubin
The son of a rabbi, Leslie Rubin was born on 5 August 1909 in District Six, Cape Town, Cape Province (now Western Cape), then a multiracial district of the…
Article50 Facts on Africa
In the modern-day world the view people are given of Africa is often a narrow one. In this piece we present 50 facts about this continent that people may not…
BiographyDr. Abu Baker Asvat
This article was written by Michelle Hayman and forms part of the SAHO Public History Internship The ‘People’s Doctor’ ‘He struggled to liberate…
Book 5: People, Places and Apartheid - Chapter 4 - The Township Uprising, September-November 1984 by Noor Nieftagodien
From the book: Book 5: People, Places and Apartheid commissioned by The Department of Education Apartheid was brought to an end by the struggles of millions…
Chapter 4 - The Township Uprising, September-November 1984
Apartheid was brought to an end by the struggles of millions of ordinary people in townships, factories and rural areas. The insurrection of the 1980s was…
The Afrikaanse Handelsinsituut
The Afrikaanse Handelsinsituut (AHI – in English the Afrikaans Commercial Institute) was formed during WWII to create Afrikaner businesses and represent their…
Grade 12 - Topic 4 - The end of the Cold War and a new global world order 1989 to present
There were many reasons why apartheid collapsed. You can read about the crisis of Apartheid in the 1980s in section 5 of the grade 12 material. The collapse of…
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…
BiographyDorothy Cleminshaw
Dorothy Cleminshaw (nee Mullany) was born in Cape Town on the 15th of September 1922. She went to Ellersie College in Sea Point and matriculated with a full…
ArticleUnited Democratic Front (UDF)
The United Democratic Front (UDF) was an anti-apartheid body that incorporated many anti-apartheid organisations. It was launched in 1983, in Mitchells Plain…
Pretoria the Segregated city
… seldom left the area. However, overcrowding in the 1940s, together with decreased labour demands, paved the way …
From Durban Falkirk to Defy: Changing sources of workers’ power in the metal industry by Andries Bezuidenhout and Edward Webster
This paper was submitted to the 1973 Durban Strikes Celebrating 50 Years Conference Conference on Fifty years since the 1973 Durban strikes Durban…
ArticleA history of prison labour in South Africa
Prison labour has a particularly debatable history in South Africa. Historically, South Africa operated on the understanding that prisons were places of…
Conflict among civic organisations
Civic organisations in the Western Cape, particularly in Cape Town did not share the same ideological stance, interests and outcomes. One of the major…
ArticleThe Society of Young Africa (SOYA)
The Society of Young Africa (SOYA) held its opening conference on 20th December 1951. Led by I. B. Tabata, SOYA was closely linked to the Non European Unity…
ArticleCommemoration, remembering and memorialising June 16 Soweto uprising
Since the early 1990s, June 16, now known as Youth Day, has been remembered, commemorated, and memorialised as public history. There have been different ways…
ArticleThe Azania Liberation Support Committee and its publications
… Gelderen, a South African who had been in London since the 1940s and who was a member of the International Marxist …
BiographyTim Bruwer
Odd one out Over the years many people have asked me how it came about that I, amongst all the Afrikaners that I grew up with or knew, as a young man in the…
Devout domesticity? A century of African women's Christianity in South Africa by Deborah Gaitskell
… who did faced opposition and lack of training until the 1940s; in contrast, thousands of men were able to channel …
BiographyPetros Sipho Sibusiso Mkhize (Mkize)
Petros Sipho Sibusiso Mkhize was born and raised in Macambini, a rural area in KwaZulu-Natal. Little is documented about his early life, but like many young…
BiographyProfessor Kader Abdul Asmal
Kader Abdul Asmal was born on 8th of October in 1934, in the small rural town of Stanger, KwaZulu Natal (then Natal). Young Asmal was raised in a vibrant,…
BiographyEmil Sachs
Emil Solomon (Solly) Sachs was born on 11 November 1900, in Kamaai, Lithuania. He was the fourth of the five children of Abraham Saks, later changed to 'Sachs'…
BiographyBishop Mmutlanyane Stanley Mogoba
Stanley Mmutlanyane Mogoba was born on 29 March 1933 outside Polokwane, Limpopo. He was the last born in a family of six. His father Reuben Tshomoko Sethulane…
BiographyBilly Nair
Billy Nair was born in Ansonia Lane (now Lacey Road), Sydenham, Durban on 27 November 1929. He was one of five children born to Parvathy and Ittynian (Kisten)…
BiographyDr. Walter Benson Rubusana
Walter Benson Rubusana was born on 21 February 1858 at Mnandi in the Somerset East district of the then Cape Colony. His father was a senior councillor …
BiographySurinarayan ‘Sonny’ Kala Venkatrathnam
Surinarayan ‘Sonny’ Kala Venkatrathnam was born on 27 July 1935 in Sea View, Durban, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). He had 12 siblings. He grew up in very dire…
ArchiveWebinar Programme: Red Lives. Convenor: Arianna Lissoni
… during the liberation movement, particularly between the 1940s and the 1960s. Although the CPSA had strong …
The Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre
As the Polly Street Art Center drew to a close so Rorke's Drift was established. Polly Street was urban, Rorke's Drift rural. If Polly Street attempted a…
ArticleAzanian People’s Organization (AZAPO)
In aftermath of the June 16 Uprising, the government cracked down on student activists and organisations alike. On 19 October 1977 the Black Consciousness…
BiographyDiana Mary Mitchell
Diana Mitchell was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, or what was then known as Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, on 16 November 1932[i]. She was famous for many things,…