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EventSS Mendi sinks in the English Channel on the way to France
The sinking of the SS Mendi on 21 February 1917 became one of South Africa's worst tragedies of the First World War (1914-1919). A total of 616 South Africans,…
EventViolence erupts in Paarl
Violence erupted when Poqo members from Mbekweni, Paarl, met and resolved to attack the White town of Paarl. Over 200 men armed with axes, pangas, sticks,…
EventThe Liquor Laws Amendment Bill comes into effect
Location: back to this day in history search archive The Liquor Act, which was passed on 23 June 1927, prohibited Africans and Indians from serving liquor,…
EventThe Cato Manor riots begin due to the ‘beer issue’ and looming forced removals
In terms of the notorious Group Areas Act (1950), the following proclamation was made in June 1958: 'In Cato Manor, Natal; 25,798 Indians, 2,107 Coloureds and…
EventWW2: A German bomb fired off Algeria’s coast sinks British transport ship (HMT Rohna) carrying US soldiers.
Built in 1926, the aging steam ship was pressed into service as a troop transport by the Royal Navy and had already carried thousands allied of troops to…
Mandela and Fidel A film by Estela Bravo
You are invited to free film screenings and discussions with filmmaker Estela Bravo Cuban-American filmmaker Estela Bravo is presenting her recent film…
African farmers in Southern Africa
The first farmers For a period of time that is almost impossible to imagine, all the inhabitants of Southern Africa were Stone Age hunter-gatherers. Then about…
EventExtracts from one of South African President Thabo Mbeki's most stirring speeches
"I am an African. I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the…
Statement by Oliver Tambo on death sentences passed on three members of ANC and Umkhonto We Sizwe, 20 August 1981
On Wednesday, August 19, 1981, a racist judge in Pretoria sentenced to death three ANC militants - Anthony Tsotsobe, David Moise and Johannes Shabangu - after…
ArchiveDavid Goldblatt brings ex-offender portrait series to British jails by Helen Stoilas, 30 May 2017
The South African photographer David Goldblatt has installed photographs of former criminals in prisons in Birmingham and Manchester. The portraits, part of a…
English Settlement in South Africa
British presence in the Cape between the 1600s and 1795 was largely confined to the shores of the Cape and Table Bay as a halfway stop by the East India…
ArticleA History of Official Government HIV/AIDS Policy in South Africa
The HIV/AIDS Crisis Emerges: Reponses of the Apartheid GovernmentIn 1982, the first case of AIDS in South Africa was reported in a homosexual man who…
Segregationist Legislation Timeline 1950-1959
Immorality Amendment Act, Act No 21 of 1950 This Act was one of the most controversial pieces of Apartheid legislation. It prohibited adultery, attempted…
The French Revolution
On 14 July 1789 hundreds of French city workers stormed the Bastille fortress in Paris. This marked the beginning of the French Revolution, which would last…
Why is sexual violence so endemic in South Africa and why has it been so hard to combat? by Jessica Clarke
Why is sexual violence so endemic in South Africa and why has it been so hard to combat? Abstract This essay will firstly lay out government legislation…
Coetzee as Contractarian: Disgrace as Political Theory by Joshua Richman
Abstract Despite John Maxwell Coetzee’s Disgrace being the most critically engaged with novel in the South African canon, there remains an…
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 …
EventBanyana Banyana player, Eudy Simelane, is found raped and murdered
On 28 April 2008, Banyana Banyana midfielder Eudy Simelane was found in a ditch in the outskirts of her home township KwaThema, Gauteng. She had been raped,…
EventPolice arrest members of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) High Command at Lilliesleaf Farm
South African police raided the African National Congress (ANC) underground headquarters, the Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, just outside Johannesburg. Apparently…
EventJohn Lawrence, Winnie Mandela’s bodyguard, dies after a shoot
On the evening of 10 November 1993, Winnie Mandela and her bodyguard, John Lawrence, were driving through the centre of Johannesburg, when Lawrence had an…
EventAmy Biehl is murdered in Cape Town
In 1993, an American Fulbright post-graduate, Amy Elizabeth Biehl (who was 26 years old), was dragged from her car by a 100-strong mob of youths in Gugulethu,…
EventNomsa Mapongwana is assassinated
Thirty-four year old Nomsa Mapongwana, wife of chairperson Michael Mapongwana of the United Democratic Front (UDF) affiliated Western Cape Civic Organisation,…
EventVoortrekkers are defeated during the Battle of Boomplaats
The Voortrekkers under Commandant Andries W. Pretorius were defeated during the Battle of Boomplaats (near Bloemfontein) by the British under Cape Governor…
EventMore than 400 miners killed in what was the worst mining disaster in South Africa
In the worst mine disaster in South Africa, a large section of the Clydesdale Colliery, at the Coalbrook mine near Sasolburg, Orange Free State, caved in…
PlaceMsinga Local Municipality
The name means: "A current in the sea where air movement causes ripples on top of the water surface and ends up influencing the nearby climatic conditions…
PlaceBritstown, Northern Cape
Britstown located in the Northern Cape of South Africa, a small farming town Named after Hans Brits, who accompanied David Livingstone on a venture to the…
PlaceClarens, Eastern Free State
Clarens, a small Town situated in the Eastern Free State which was established in 1912. The Village of Clarens, was a result of two Farms being sold: …
Document 127 - 6 Point Communist Programme f c. 7 941)
From: South Africa's Radical Tradition, a documentary history, Volume One 1907 - 1950, by Allison Drew The people of the world are on the march in a great…
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…
Say It out Loud - The 1913 Presidential Address, Kimberley, Cape, 11th October, 1913
From the book: Say It out Loud by Mohamed Adhikari The 1913 Presidential Address, Kimberley, Cape, 11th October, 1913 Presidential address by Dr. A…