SAHO global search

1903-1960

Ida Fiyo Mntwana

… Ida was born in 1903 and worked as a dressmaker. She was the first president of the  African National Congress Women’s League  and a leader … from Western…

B-0067964

1905-1962

Goolam H. Gool

… born on 24 March 1905, in Cape Town, Western Cape. He was the son of Yusuf Gool, born in India, in 1864. He made his … Yusuf started out as a hawker but…

B-0008114

1978

Hestrie Cloete

… in Germiston, Transvaal (now Gauteng ). She grew up in the small town of Coligny , Western Transvaal (now North West … Province ) with her mother Martie and…

B-0007946

1976

Jacob Zungwane Mashabane

… On the 5th of October 1976 Mr Jacob Mashabane, aged 22, a … Zululand student was reported to have died in detention at the Johannesburg Fort after being…

B-0074817

1952

Ari Sitas

… is a creative socialist thinker, an activist and one of the key intellectuals of the post 1980s generation in South Africa.  He is a professor and the head…

B-0121912

1929-2014

Sadie Forman

… and prolific writer, who was extremely active in the anti-apartheid and communist movements. Four years later, he would become one of the 156 men and women…

B-0080054

1739-1793

Baron Joachim van Plettenberg

… J.A. van Plettenberg was born on the 8 March 1739 in Leeuwarden in Friesland, the Netherlands, the son of Hendrik Casimir and Agatha Petronella van Ammena. ……

B-0068652

1934-2013

Ian Berry

… Adams, vouched for him as an immigrant and taught him the technical basics of photography while employing him as an … proceeded to work at a photographic…

B-0007844

1915-1979

Vera Ponnen

… England. She came to South Africa in 1938 as a governess. The next year, she went to Johannesburg and while there she met members of the Communist Party. She…

B-0068317

1926-2017

Helen Kies

… began her teaching career at Athlone High School in 1948, the same year the National Party  (NP) came into power. From an early age, … from teaching for life…

B-0096277

1922

Greenwood Dumisa Ngotyana

… African National Congress  organiser in the Western Cape. Ngotyana was born in the Transkei in 1922 and completed a few years of secondary … union of which…

B-0008779

S. S. Tema

… Reformed minister who was a founder and later president of the quasipolitical Interdenominational African Ministers' Federation. On the periphery of…

B-0068536

1973

Shaun Maclean Pollock

… on 16 July 1973 in Port Elizabeth and moved to Durban at the age of five. Born to a cricketing family, his father Peter and Uncle Graeme represented South…

B-0008904

1867-1957

Maria Wilman

… Wilman studied botany at the University of Cambridge, which she completed in 1888 when … In 1888 she returned to South Africa and began work at the South…

B-0009231

1920-2017

Violet Sarah Matlou (née Phiri)

… in Welgeval and completed it at Mmabeskraal under the tutelage of Reverend Selope Thema , a prominent African … a nursing course in Johannesburg , and…

B-0068680

1889-1946

Alexander Macaulay Jabavu

… Jabavu was born in 1889 in King William's Town, he was the second son of  John Tengo Jabavu . After studying at … which he edited until 1940. In about 1925…

B-0008189

1924-1961

Petros Molefe

… He married Maria Molefe and they had no children. Amid the many explosions carried out on the night of the 16 December 1961 was a unit from Dube, in Soweto,…

B-0073992

1942-2024

Edward “Eddie” Webster

… Philosophy from York University. He obtained his PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand. Professor Webster established the Society, Work and…

B-0095160

1939-2024

Breyten Breytenbach

… Breytenbach was an opponent of the apartheid regime, whose work represented a milestone in the development of Afrikaans poetry, formally and … Born on 16…

B-0007886

Cijimpi Mnyandu

… Congress (ANC) member, who worked in Durban, was from the Makhanya Tribal Area, Umlazi District, on the south coast of Natal [now KwaZulu-Natal]. In early ……

B-0094271

1924-1960

Ephraim Chaka

… Chaka, Lekhowa David Chaka, Maniki Chaka and Meiti Chaka. The family lived in Sharpeville. He enjoyed riding his … every day to work. Chaka worked as a block…

B-0125868

1903-1985

John Koenakeefe Mohl

… Mohl was born on 29 September 1903 in Dinokana, Zeerust in the North-West Province. Mohl's father was a carpenter who … father eventually withdrew him from…

B-0008603

1930-2006

Mazisi Raymond Kunene

… Albert Kunene, a labourer.He grew up at Amahlongwa on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast and attended primary school … age and was published in newspapers and…

B-0008288

1916

Job Patja Kekana

… as a herd boy. His pieces included walking sticks for the older men of his village. A priest who recognised his skill arranged a place for him at the Grace…

B-0099474

1939

Jonty Driver

…  His father spent time fighting in North Africa during the Second World War until he was captured in Toruk and … attended St. Andrews and spent his formative…

B-0094982

1926-2007

Edgar Dumile Ngoyi

… Edgar Dumile Ngoyi was born on 26 December 1926 in the Eastern Cape. He worked as a painter and builder. Ngoyi became politically active in the ANC as a…

B-0068706

Diana (Di) Bishop

… eleven in 1961 when South Africa became a republic. During the celebrations, she refused to attend a military display, influencing her other siblings to do…

B-0007856

1955-1985

Malesella Benjamin Moloise

… 1985 at Pretoria Central Prison for his supposed role in the 1982 murder of a black security policeman. However, the African National Congress claimed…

B-0076034

1904

Simon Tyeku

… Chairman of the Sophiatown  African National Congress  in the mid-1950s and a first-string accused in the  Treason Trial of 1956-1961 . Tyeku was born in…

B-0009175