SAHO global search

1823-1888

Johannes Henricus Brand

… Johannes Henricus Brand was the president of the Orange Free State , one of two Boer republics formed after the Boers left the Cape Colony in the Great Trek…

B-0123392

1917-1979

Benjamin Magson Kies

… South African political activist and theorist from about the middle of the 1930s until his death in 1979. His major contribution as an activist was to the…

B-0067724

1881-1951

Pixley ka Isaka Seme

… Pixley Seme was born on 1 October 1881 in Natal, the son of Isaka Sarah (nee Mseleku) Seme. Little is … and teenager. He obtained his primary school…

B-0009017

1861-1951

Sefako Mapogo Makgatho

… Sefako Mapogo Makgatho was born at GaMphahlele, in the Pietersburg district in Transvaal (now Limpopo province) in 1861. He was the son of Chief Kgorutlhe…

B-0070720

Poonoosamy Ruthnam Pather

… in that country after emigrating from Tanjore in India in the 1840s. PR's father was born in Mauritius and his mother … and brother, PA Pather immigrated to…

B-0068301

1913-1996

George Gangen Ponnen

… Gangen George Ponnen  was born on 1 June 1913 in the district of Rooikopjes near Durban, in the then Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). His father Ponnen, born … an…

B-0068316

Vella Pillay

… House, Highgate, London. Vella Pillay was born on the 8th of October 1923, Johannesburg. My family, father, … owned by my father but that it was heavily…

B-0008894

1894-1982

Charles Robberts (Blackie) Swart

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

B-0009114

1929

Peter Hlaole Molotsi

… Molotsi was born in Steinsrust, a municipal location, in the district of Kroonstad, (then Orange Free State) on July … to Johannesburg. However, he continued…

B-0068076

1867-1946

Josiah Tshangana Gumede

… on 9th October 1867 in Healdtown Village, Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape. His father, John Gumede, and his mother … and, according to their grandson…

B-0008131

1790-1868

King Mzilikazi

… Mzilikazi (meaning The Great Road), was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom (Mthwakazi), Matabeleland, in what … ca. 1790 near Mkuze,…

B-0068162

1858-1936

Dr. Walter Benson Rubusana

… 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 (umphakathi)…

B-0008970

1945

Omar Badsha

… in a working-class Indian Muslim family, which is part of the country's small but influential Gujarati Vhora Muslim … His grandparents immigrated to South…

B-0007806

1932

Dr. Frene Noshir Ginwala

… was born on 25 April 1932 in Johannesburg in what was then the Province of the Transvaal (now Gauteng Province). Her politics would be … and how she grew up…

B-0084128

1912-2003

Walter Ulyate Sisulu

… Walter Ulyate Max Sisulu was born in the village of Qutubeni in the Engcobo district of the Transkei on 18 May 1912. Sisulu was born out of wedlock. … South…

B-0065415

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

1907-1983

Michael Guthrie Scott

… This article was written by Ben Forstate and forms part of the SAHO Public History Internship Michael Guthrie Scott was born on 30 July 1907 in the village…

B-0084331

1836-1914

Joseph Chamberlain

… in a Tory cabinet. A successful businessman, he became the mayor of Birmingham, using his term to implement policies … their time. He was appointed Colonial…

B-0123405

1936-1988

Morgan Gonaseelan Naidoo

… in 1936 in Durban.  He spent most of his young life at the FOSA TB Settlement, just north of the city. His father died when he was still young, and he was ……

B-0121659

1854-1925

Alfred Milner

… a statesman and colonial administrator, became Governor of the Cape and High Commissioner of South Africa in 1897. He pushed the Transvaal Republic to war,…

B-0008561

1787-1828

Shaka Zulu

… He lived in an area of south-east Africa between the Drakensberg and the Indian Ocean, a region populated by many independent … brought together in a Zulu…

B-0009265

1942

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki

… His middle name ’Mvuyelwa’ is Xhosa and means ‘he for whom the people sing’. Both his parents were teachers, activists and members of the Communist Party of…

B-0008516

1871-1946

John Langalibalele Dube

… Langalibalele Dube was born at Inanda Mission station of the American Zulu Mission (AZM) in Natal on 22 February 1871 … means ‘bright sun’. Dube’s…

B-0070060

1450-1500

Bartolomeu Dias

… He was a Portuguese navigator whose discovery in 1488 of the Cape of Good Hope showed Europeans there was a feasible route to India around the storm-driven…

B-0008003

1929-2009

Ronald “Ron” Press

… born in 1929.  His father a cinematograph operator became the secretary of the Cinematograph Workers Union, a post he held for over 20 years.  He was in one…

B-0008914

1795-1840

King Dingane ka Senzangakhona

… childhood or early career. Instead, Dingane enters the record when on the 22 of September 1828 he, with the assistance of his half-brother Mhlangana and…

B-0008006

1980

Mmusi Aloysias Maimane

… grew up in Dobsonville, Soweto, Transvaal (now Gauteng). The eldest of four children, Maimane attended Allen Glen High … School, where he matriculated in…

B-0125899

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, … Quaker. Shepstone's father was…

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, … Quaker. Shepstone's father was…

B-0009033