SAHO global search

1968

DJ 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…

B-0125398

Joseph Fansio Mati

Joseph Faniso Mati was born on a farm near Adelaide, Eastern Cape and grew up in Port Elizabeth. During high school, teachers encouraged students to attend…

B-0148437

1894-1982

Charles Robberts (Blackie) Swart

Charles Robberts (Blackie) Swart was born on 5 December 1894 in Morgenzon, Winburg district. He was the son of Hermanus Bernardus Swart and Aletta Catharina…

B-0009114

1944

Subbiah Moodley

Subbiah Moodley is probably the most anonymous of the early uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC), recruits. He…

B-0124725

1450-1500

Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias, also spelt: Bartholomew Diaz. He was a Portuguese navigator whose discovery in 1488 of the Cape of Good Hope showed Europeans there was a…

B-0008003

1924-1978

Robert Sobukwe

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was born to Hubert and Angelina Sobukwe on 5 December 1924 at Graaff-Reinet, Cape Province. He was the youngest of five boys and one…

B-0009089

1893-1962

Dr Alfred Bitini Xuma

Alfred Bitini Xuma was born on 8 March 1893, in Manzana, Ngcobo District, in the Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape). Xuma was the seventh child of Abraham…

B-0009245

1940-2009

Dr. Mantombazana ‘Manto’ Tshabalala-Msimang

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was born in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal on 9 October 1940. She attended Inanda Seminary Secondary School, a boarding school for black South…

B-0085118

1908-1975

Advocate Abram "Bram" Fischer

Advocate Abram "Bram" Fischer was born on 23 April 1908 in the Orange Free State. He was born into a prominent Afrikaans family, son of Percy Ulrich Fischer,…

B-0008069

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

1892-1985

Dr James Sebe Moroka

Dr. James Sebe Moroka was the great grandson of Chief Moroka I of the Barolong, from Thaba Nchu in the then Orange Free State. Moroka was born on 16 March…

B-0068105

1948

Timothy Peter Jenkin

Timothy Peter Jenkin was born in 1948, in Cape Town and educated at Rondebosch Boys' Prep and Boys' High School,[1][2] matriculating at the age of 17.[3] …

B-0008202

1967-1989

Coline Williams

Coline Williams was born on 30 May 1967 and grew up in Bonteheuwel, a township in the Western Cape, South Africa. The eldest of three siblings, Coline, her…

B-0149719

1917-1993

Oliver Tambo

Early years Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo (more popularly known as Oliver Tambo or OR) was born in the village of Kantilla, Bizana, in the Mpondoland …

B-0009119

1953-2019

Jonathan Clegg

Jonathan ‘Johnny’ Clegg was born in Bacup, near Rochdale in England on 7 June 1953. His father was from England but his mother was from Southern Rhodesia (now…

B-0094958

1916-1976

Dawood Seedat

Dawood Seedat (1916-1976) was the grandson of a Ladysmith, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) trader M.E. Seedat, who had nine children, one of whom, Ahmed, moved to…

B-0068419

20 January-1967

Petros 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…

B-0153080

1949-2015

Robert Carl-Heinz Shell

Robert Shell was born in Cape Town, South Africa on 13 February 1949, the only child of a German father, Heinrich (Heinz) Schelowsky (later changed to Shell)…

B-0100280

1910-1987

Mattheus Uys Krige

Mattheus Uys Krige and his contribution to the Second World War  Mattheus Uys Krige (1910-1987) can certainly be counted among the most dynamic literary…

B-0123687

1917-1979

Benjamin Magson Kies

Benjamin Magson Kies Introduction Benjamin Magson Kies was an important South African political activist and theorist from about the middle of the 1930s…

B-0067724

1793-1876

William Cock

In 1849, Cape Town lived up to its reputation for giving visiting vessels a rousing reception. But this was a reception with a difference; it was in fact a…

B-0149225

1918-2013

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Childhood in the Eastern CapeNelson Rolihlahla Mandela was the son of Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Henry Mgadla Mandela, a chief and chief councillor to the paramount…

B-0065300

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

1946-1977

Stephen Bantu Biko

IntroductionStephen (Steve) Bantu Biko was a popular voice of Black liberation in South Africa between the mid 1960s and his death in police detention in 1977…

B-0007855

1941-2013

Wendy 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,…

B-0150406

Poonoosamy Ruthnam Pather

Poonoosamy Ruthnam Pather (PR) was born in Mauritius in 1895.  His grandfather settled in that country after emigrating from Tanjore in India in the 1840s. PR…

B-0068301

1836-1914

Joseph Chamberlain

Joseph Chamberlain was a British statesman, a colonial administrator and politician who went from being a radical, almost socialist liberal to an arch…

B-0123405

1909-1983

Dr Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo

Dr Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo played an outstanding role in the South African liberation movement for over half a century - in persuading the Indian community to link…

B-0007970

1869-1944

Kasturba Gandhi

Kasturba Kapadia was born on April 11 1869 in Porbandar, in present day Gujarat. She was the daughter of Gokuldas Makanji Kapadia, a wealthy merchant. Kasturba…

B-0084124

1795-1840

King Dingane ka Senzangakhona

Dingane ka Senzangakhona was born in 1795 to father Chief Senzangakhona and mother Mpikase kaMlilela Ngobese who was Senzangakhona's sixth and ‘great wife'. [i…

B-0008006