SAHO global search

1900-1976

Emil 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'…

B-0068401

1851-1919

Francis Zaccharius Santiago Peregrino

Francis Zaccharius Santiago Peregrino was a journalist and public intellectual who, in the early 1900s, challenged notions of Black racial inferiority in the…

B-0122673

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

1942-2020

George Hallett

George Hallett was born in 1942  District Six, Cape Town. He then moved to Hout Bay, Cape Town to live with his grandparents. Thereafter he moved to live in…

B-0008139

1870-1947

Horatio (Bud) Isaiah Mbelle

Horatio Isaiah Budlwana (Bud) Mbelle was born in Burgersdorp, Cape Colony on 24 June 1870. He grew up in the Herschel district in the Eastern Cape where Sotho…

B-0067925

1937

Adriaan Vlok

Adriaan Vlok was born on 11 December 1937 in Sutherland, Cape Province to Betty Oliver and Nicolaas Vlok. He grew up on a smallholding close to the Orange…

B-0009209

1938-2018

Keorapetse William Kgositsile

Keorapetse William Kgositsile (popularly known as Bra Willie) was born in Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng). He attended Matibane High School. Influenced…

B-0097180

1923-1986

William “Bloke” Modisane

William 'Bloke' Modisane was born on 28 August 1923. He grew up in Sophiatown, a multiracial suburb in Johannesburg. His father was murdered and sister died…

B-0008589

1932

Nkosinathi Benson Fihla

Nkosinathi Benson Fihla was born on 13th June of 1932 in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Province (now Eastern Cape). Fihla grew up in PE from 1945, after his parents…

B-0080047

1955-1985

Qaqawuli Godolozi

Qaqawuli Godolozi was born in Durban 26 of July 1955 to Mbuyiselo Godolozi and Nobubele Jafta. His family relocated to Peddie in the Eastern Cape where he grew…

B-0068167

1860-1926

Emily Hobhouse

In 1899 Emily Hobhouse was appointed secretary of the South African Conciliation Committee, which was a group that opposed the British government policy…

B-0008164

1947

Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke

Dikgang Moseneke was born in Pretoria on 20 December 1947. He is the eldest of the four children of Karabo Mabel and a school headmaster Samuel John Sedise…

B-0077610

1915-1979

Vera Ponnen

Vera Ponnen (nee Vera Gwendoline Alberts) was born in 1915 in England. She came to South Africa in 1938 as a governess. The next year, she went to Johannesburg…

B-0068317

1895-1960

Sorabjee Rustomjee

Sorabji Rustomjee, son of Parsee Rustomjee, was born in Durban on 25 December 1895. He went to India to study and soon after returning to South Africa, crossed…

B-0068389

Benjamin Ulenga

Benjamin (Ben) Ulenga was born in Owamboland. His father was a labourer, who from age 16 or 17 had to leave Owamboland to work on various English, Dutch,…

B-0099834

1928

Michael Kitso Dingake

Michael Kitso Dingake was born on 11 February 1928 in Bobonong Village, Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana). He attended the Bobonong Primary School…

B-0064882

1944-2017

Buchi Emecheta

Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta Obe ‘Buchi Emecheta’ was born in the Nigerian city of Lagos on 21 July in 1944 to Jeremy Nwabudinke, a railway worker and Alice …

B-0122744

1923-2016

Daniel Kunene

On 27 May 2016, surrounded by his beloved family, Kunene died peacefully at his home in Madison, America.  He was 93 years old.[i] Daniel Kunene was born in…

B-0121084

1931-2017

Thandi Klaasen

Thandi Klaasen (27 September 1931 – 15 January 2017)Thandi Klaasen, born Thandiwe Nelly Mpambani, was one of South Africa's most celebrated jazz musicians and…

B-0008266

1916

Job Patja Kekana

Jon Patja Kekana was born on 1 January 1916. He grew up on a rural homestead outside of Potgietersrus, now known as Mokopane, in Limpopo province. Kekana’s…

B-0099474

1915-2003

Abdul Khalek Mohamed Docrat

Docrat was born in the village of Kathor, India on 15 September 1915. His grandfather was a pioneering businessman who traded in Burma and South Africa. Upon…

B-0008013

1915-1974

Michael Alan Harmel

Michael Alan Harmel was born on 7th of February in 1915 in Johannesburg ,to Irish immigrant parents, became a radical socialist, fiercely opposed to racism…

B-0008142

1927-1978

Philemon Pearce Nokwe

As a child he grew up in a working-class environment - his father was a shoemaker - and attended primary schools in Evaton. He matriculated at St Peter's…

B-0068272

1950

Christian Malcolm

He was born in Durban. He studied at the Natal Technical College, Durban, the Croydon College of Design, Surrey, England, and at the UN(P) where he lectured in…

B-0007941

1947

James Gavin Younge

James Gavin (Forest) Younge was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. From 1965 to 1968 he studied at the Witwatersrand Technical College gaining a national Art Teachers…

B-0009253

1874-1932

Michiel Hendrik Nesser

Michiel Hendrik Nesser was born on 28 July 1874 in Lusaskop, Philipstown. He received informal teaching from his father. Nesser was a great reader and his…

B-0008764

1926-2004

Ethel de Keyser

As a girl she had developed an interest in the arts, and in the 1950s married an up-and-coming actor, David de Keyser, a marriage that lasted 10 years. She…

B-0007984

1949

Linda Komape

Linda Komape was born in Gauteng (then Transvaal) in 1949. She did not enter politics at an early stage in her life, but went through a difficult time with her…

B-0008273

Dr Gomolemo Mokae

Gomolemo Mokae was born in Ga-Mokopane. He was the last of the eight children born of a Methodist minister, Reverend Modisagarekwe Michael and Lotlamoreng…

B-0067979

1923

Thembekile Enoch kaTshunungwa

National organiser of the African National Congress (ANC) in the mid-1950s and later a prominent figure in Transkei politics, Tshunungwa was born in 1923 in…

B-0008232