SAHO global search

1956

Patric Tariq Mellet

Patric Tariq Mellet was born and grew up in the working class districts of old Cape Town – Salt River, Woodstock and District Six. His family were poor working…

B-0008542

1787-1828

Shaka Zulu

Sigidi kaSenzangakhona commonly knows as Shaka was a great Zulu king and conqueror. He lived in an area of south-east Africa between the Drakensberg and the…

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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

1817-1893

Theophilus Shepstone

Theophilus Shepston was born near Bristol in 1817, the son of the Reverend J William Shepstone, who became an 1820 settler, and his wife Elizabeth Brooks, a…

B-0068446

1817-1893

Sir. Theophilus Shepstone

Theophilus Shepston was born near Bristol in 1817, the son of the Reverend J William Shepstone, who became an 1820 settler, and his wife Elizabeth Brooks, a…

B-0009033

1926-2013

Maqashu Leonard Mdingi

Leonard Maqhatshu Mdingi was born on 2 February1926. He grew up at his family homesteads first near Bizana, and then in Amadiba Location towards the coast in…

B-0147984

1957-1988

Makhosi “Tholi” Nyoka

Makhosi “Tholi” Nyoka was born on 3 April 1957 and grew up in KwaMashu, a township north of Durban, where she attended Umzuvele Secondary School. Nyoka was…

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1972

Zanele Muholi

This biography was written by Artthrob in collaboration with SAHO. Zanele Muholi is a photographer and visual activist based in Johannesburg. Muholi’s work…

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1942

Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma

Early LifeJacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (Msholozi – his praise name) was born on 12 April 1942 at Nkandla in northern Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal). He is the first…

B-0009268

1958-2020

Harry Garuba

Harry Garuba was born in Akure, southwestern Nigeria, in 1958. [1] At the young age of seventeen he was accepted to study English at the University of Ibadan…

B-0150128

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

1959

Gideon Mendel

Gideon Mendel was born on 31st  August 1959 Johannesburg, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cape Town where he majored in African Economic…

B-0008543

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

1949-1991

Mhlabunzima Joseph Maphumulo

Mhlabunzima Maphumulo was born on 6th September,1949 Maqongqo distric of Kwazulu-Natal . At the age of 24, Maphumulo inherited the role of Chief of the…

B-0141689

1938

Viacheslav “Ivan” Shiryaev

Viacheslav Shiryaev, popularly known as Comrade Ivan, was born in January 1938 in the town of Orsk, south of Urals, Russia. He completed the Higher Engineers…

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Edward Sineke Tyaliti

In a letter to the NAD [Native Affairs Department] Secretary dated 14 August 1958, the CM [Chief Magistrate] claimed that [Kaizer] Matanzima was keen on…

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1952

Mathews Phosa

Nakedi Mathews Phosa was born on 1 September 1952 in Mbombela Township, Nelspruit, Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga Province). He grew up with his grandfather…

B-0148284

1867-1942

Thomas Benjamin Davis

Thomas Benjamin Frederick Davis, the son of Thomas Leipold, a fisherman, and Jemima Davis was born in April 1867 in Jersey, Channel Islands, a British Crown…

B-0148819

1973

Mary Margaret Ngalo

Mary Margaret Ngalo was born in Cradock, Transkei (now Eastern Cape Province) to Tom and Leah Plaatjie. As the niece of Reverend Canon James A. Calata, who was…

B-0150323

1947-1985

Matthew Goniwe

Matthew Goniwe was born on 27 December 1947 in Lingelihle Township on the outskirts of Cradock in the Eastern Cape. His parents David and Elizabeth were farm…

B-0064852

1939

Marcus Solomon

Marcus Solomon was born in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, on 27 January 1939. His father, a waiter by profession, was a Hindu born of Tamil parents from Sri Lanka,…

B-0141664

1959

Jane Alexander

This biography was written by SAHO in collaboration with Artthrob Modus Operandi Jane Alexander is known for her figurative sculptures, often appearing…

B-0007786

1940

Sindiso Mfenyana

Background and Childhood Sindiso Mfenyana is descended from the Bhele clan, which is an offshoot of the Hlubi tribe. He traces his roots back to a small town…

B-0123703

2019

Solly Mokoetle

Solly Mokoetle was also known as Solly Mpoli in Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) circles, Solly Mokoetle left the country during the first half of 1976. As the influx…

B-0149757

1949-2007

Percival Henry Frederick “Percy” Sonn

Born in Cape Town on September 25, 1949, Percival Sonn, universally known as Percy, dedicated much of his life to the development of the game of cricket in the…

B-0149446

1966-1987

Norman “Billy Holiday” Pietersen

Norman Pietersen (also known as Billy Holiday) was born in 1966 in Paarl, Western Cape. In 1982, he was recruited by uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) veterans and became…

B-0149905

1965

Tracy Payne

Tracy Payne’s hyper real paintings evoke a sense of sublime sexuality in the art of constraint, even if she is painting a flower. She was born in 1965 in…

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1869-1948

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

*Note: The focus of this biography is on Gandhi's life and times in South Africa. Early life and education Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born to a…

B-0008089

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

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…

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