SAHO global search

1902-1978

Jan Bouws

Jan Bouws, accomplished musician, composer, lecturer and author, was born in the Netherlands in Purmerend on 28 July 1902. He trained in Musicology at the…

B-0007881

1906-1982

Walter Battiss

Walter Battiss was born in Somerset East to an English Methodist family in 1906, and became one of South Africa’s first and most important abstract painters…

B-0007836

1939

Chief Malebogo

Malebogo (Kgalusi Seketa Masilo Ratshatsha Malaboch) was chief of the Bahananwa chiefdom, a group of the Tswana peoples. Lebogo led the Bahananwa to the…

B-0008415

1902-1972

Dezso Koenig

Dezso Koenig was born in Budapest, Hungary, 1902. He emigrated to South Africa from Hungary in 1931. After his training at the Hungarian Academy in Budapest he…

B-0008269

1847-1932

Harriette Emily Colenso

Harriette Emily Colenso was She was born in Norfolk, England, in 1847, the oldest child of Bishop John William Colenso of Natal. Until her father's death in…

B-0007954

1936

Luli Callinicos

Luli Callinicos was born in Johannesburg, and is of Hellenic descent. She began her involvement in the struggle for democracy at an early age. She began her…

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Stephen Mini

He was an early leader of the African National Congress (ANC), serving at times as head of the House of Chiefs. He was also among the first leaders of the…

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1890-1983

Magdalena Gertruide Sauer

Magdalena, daughter of W. Sauer, Cabinet Minister, was the first woman to practice as a qualified architect in South Africa. She mainly practiced in South…

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Chief Vuna Miya

Between 1953 and 1957, there was conflict around Bantu Affairs (BA) and various other issues in the Bergville area, [Natal, now KwaZulu-Natal]. As a result,…

B-0080782

1922-1978

Shulamith Muller

Shulamith Muller (nee Movshowitz) was born in Pretoria in December 1922. She studied law at the University of Pretoria, and was admitted as an attorney in 1948…

B-0068157

1925-1992

Yvonne Bryceland

Actress Yvonne Bryceland, née Heilbuth, was born in Cape Town on 18 November 1925. She worked as a newspaper librarian before her theatre debut in Stage Door…

B-0007894

1936-2013

Sathima Bea Benjamin

Sathima Benjamin was born into a humble family in Claremont, Cape Town in 1936. Deeply influenced by the cosmopolitan culture she grew up with in the shadows…

B-0007840

unknown-2011

Rev George Wauchope

Rev George Wauchope was born in South Africa. He joined the South African Student  Organisation (SASO) while studying at the University of Fort Hare in the…

B-0065257

1947-2006

Maxwell Mduduzi Malinga

Maxwell Mduduzi Malinga, was one of South Africa’s most gifted and beloved fighters in the 1970s and 80s. He was born on 09 November 1947 at Steadville,…

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1868-1928

Enoch Mgijima

When government police ordered Mgijima's followers to remove their settlement from crown lands, they resisted and police opened fire, killing approximately 200…

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1950

Elizabeth Mbatha

Elizabeth Mbatha was born in 1950 near Rorke's Drift. Mbatha did not attend school. In 1974 she married Eric Mbatha, a potter at Rorke's Drift. In the early…

B-0008511

1955

Matsilela Ephraim “Jomo” Sono

Jomo Sono as he is affectionately known was born in Orlando East in Soweto, Johannesburg on 17 July 1955. At the age of 8, his father Eric “Scara” Bamuza Sono,…

B-0009095

1817-1887

Jan Gerritze Bantjes

Jan Gerritze Bantjes was born in Graaff-Reinet district. He was a member of Voortrekker leader Jacob de Clercq's group who arrived at Blesberg, in the present…

B-0007822

1913-1967

Louis Washkansky

Of Lithuanian Jewish extraction, Louis Washkansky came to South Africa aged 9, and became a grocer in Cape Town’s Greenpoint area. Washkansky saw active…

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C. S. Ramohanoe

C. S Ramohanoe was a provincial President of the Transvaal African National Congress (ANC) from 1944 to 1950 and later head of the faction known as the…

B-0008937

1920

Jaydew Nasib Singh

Jaydew Nasib Singh was born in South Africa about 1920 and graduated in the mid-1940s with a law degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, where he was…

B-0009066

1863-1928

Edward Clark Churchill Mace

Edward Clark Churchill Mace was born in Leicester, England, 1863. He emigrated to Australia when he was eighteen and made a fortune from mining. Rendered…

B-0008356

1870-1938

Leo Rbc Francois

Leo Francois Rbc was born in Chemnitz, Germany, 1870. Francois, a long serving President of the NSA, was a protagonist with SASA in his quest to unite the…

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1920-2008

Lucy Mary (nee Mullins) Wiles

Lucy Mary Wiles (Mullins) was born in Johannesburg, 1920. Wiles originally trained as a nurse. She also studied under Nils Andersen and Walter Gilbert Wiles…

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1931-1981

Dr Nomava Eslinah Shangase

Nomava Eslinah Shangase was born in Pondoland on 9 May 1931. Shangase qualified as a nurse at King Edward Hospital in Durban. As a nurse, in South Africa, she…

B-0074795

1918-1967

Patrick Baker Duncan

A controversial White champion of African rights, Patrick Duncan played a conspicuous role in opposition politics for over a decade, attracting notice from the…

B-0008027

1949

Gill Marcus

Gill Marcus was born in 10 August, 1949 to parents who were active members of the African National Congress (ANC). She grew up in Johannesburg, where she…

B-0008444

1900-1975

Anna Johanna Dorthea De Villiers

De Villiers was an educator and author. She was an editor of the Dictionary of the Afrikaans language, the first and only female principal of the Huguenot…

B-0007993

1951

Sabata Manaka

Sabata Manaka, also known as Tsepo Nkosi, was born in 1951.  He lived in Phiri, Soweto, Johannesburg. Manaka left the country in 1978. His brother, Ezekiel…

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Logan K. Ntlabati

Logan K. Ntlabati was a prominent member of the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee in the 1940s, he was born in the Transkei and…

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