Conversations with Myself (37 page)

Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW)

Established 17 April 1954 in Johannesburg as a national, nonracial women’s organisation. Instrumental in the anti-pass campaigns which culminated in a historic march of 20,000 women on 9 August 1956 (now celebrated as Women’s Day in South Africa) to the South African government’s Union Buildings in Pretoria.

First, Ruth

(1925–82). Academic, journalist and anti-apartheid and women’s rights activist. Married Joe Slovo, 1949. Met Mandela while attending the University of the Witwatersrand. Arrested, charged and then acquitted in the Treason Trial. Fled to Swaziland with her children during the 1960 State of Emergency. Detained in solitary confinement for ninety days in 1963 and fled to the UK on her release. Lived in exile in Mozambique from 1977 and was killed by a parcel bomb there on 17 August 1982.

Fischer, Abram (Bram)

(1908–75). Lawyer and political and anti-apartheid activist. Leader of the CPSA. Member of the COD. Charged with incitement for his involvement in the African Mine Workers’ Strike for better wages in 1946. Successfully defended Mandela and other leading ANC members in the Treason Trial. Led the defence in the Rivonia Trial, 1963–64. Continually subjected to banning orders and in 1966 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for violating the Suppression of Communism Act and conspiring to commit sabotage. Awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1967.

Fischer (née Krige), Susanna Johanna (Molly)

(1908–64). Teacher and anti-apartheid activist. Member of the CPSA and FEDSAW. Married Bram Fischer, 1937. In 1955 she was banned from three organisations and forced to resign from her position as secretary of the South African Society for Peace and Friendship with the Soviet Union. Detained in the 1960 State of Emergency. She died in a car accident in 1964 en route to Cape Town with her husband to attend her daughter’s twenty-first birthday party.

Freedom Charter

A statement of the principles of the Congress Alliance, adopted at the Congress of the People in Kliptown, Soweto, on 26 June 1955. The Congress Alliance rallied thousands of volunteers across South Africa to record the demands of the people. The Freedom Charter espoused equal rights for all South Africans regardless of race, land reform, improved working and living conditions, the fair distribution of wealth, compulsory education and fairer laws. The Freedom Charter was a powerful tool used in the fight against apartheid.

Gerwel, G J (Jakes)

(1946–). Academic. Director-general in the office of President Mandela, 1994–99. Secretary of the cabinet in the Government of National Unity, 1994–99. Chancellor of Rhodes University. Distinguished Professor in the humanities, University of the Western Cape. Chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Goldberg, Denis

(1933–). Anti-apartheid and political activist. Member of the SACP. Co-founder and leader of the COD. Technical officer in MK. Arrested at Rivonia in 1963 and subsequently served a life sentence in Pretoria Local Prison. On his release in 1985 he went into exile in the UK and represented the ANC at the Anti-Apartheid Committee of the United Nations. Founded Community HEART in 1995 to help poor black South Africans. Returned to South Africa in 2002 and was appointed special advisor to Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Ronnie Kasrils.

Gool, Zainunnisa (Cissie)

(1897–1963). Lawyer and anti-apartheid activist. Daughter of Abdullah Abdurahman. Founder and first president of the National Liberation League (NLL) and president of the Non-European United Front (NEUF) in the 1940s. Arrested and charged for her involvement in the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign, and banned in 1954. In 1962, she was the first black woman to graduate from law school in South Africa and to be called to the Cape Bar. Posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli in Silver by the South African government for her outstanding contribution to the struggle for liberation and for the ideals of a just, non-racist and democratic South Africa.

Hani, Thembisile (Chris)

(1942–93). Anti-apartheid and political activist. Member of the ANCYL from the age of fifteen. He also joined the SACP. Member and eventually head of MK. He was active in the ANC underground in the Eastern and Western Capes, and eventually went into exile, where he rose through the ranks of MK. Returned to South Africa in 1990. General secretary of the SACP from 1991. Assassinated outside his home in Johannesburg in 1993 by Janusz Waluś. Posthumously awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 2008.

Harmel, Michael

(1915–74). Journalist, intellectual, trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist. Leading member of the SACP and editor of
The African Communist
. Member of MK. Assisted in the establishment of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU). Co-founder of the COD. Continuously banned. The SACP asked him to go into exile in 1962, where he played a prominent role in the SACP, ANC and MK.

Hepple, Bob

(1934–). Lawyer, academic and anti-apartheid activist. Member of the COD and SACTU. Represented Mandela in 1962 following his arrest for leaving the country illegally and for inciting workers to strike. Arrested at Liliesleaf Farm in 1963, but the charges were dropped on the condition that he appeared as a state witness. He subsequently fled South Africa. Knighted in 2004.

Hodgson, Jack

(1910–77). Anti-apartheid activist. Member of the SACP. National secretary of the Springbok Legion, an anti-fascist organisation for World War II veterans. Co-founder and first secretary of the COD. Co-founder of MK. Assisted in the training of MK recruits. Banned by the apartheid government. Charged in the Treason Trial. Listed as a co-conspirator in the indictment of the Rivonia Trial.

Jabavu, Davidson Don Tengo

(1885–1959). Academic, poet and political and anti-apartheid activist. Son of John Tengo Jabavu. First black professor at the University College of Fort Hare, Alice. President of the AAC, established in 1935, in opposition to segregationist legislation. Educator and co-founder of the SANNC (renamed as the ANC in 1923).

Jabavu, John Tengo

(1859–1921). Academic, writer, newspaper editor and political activist. Father of Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu. Established the first black-owned newspaper,
Imvo Zabantsundu
(
Black Opinion
), in 1884. Assisted in the establishment of the South African Native College (University of Fort Hare) in 1916. Posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli in Gold.

Joseph (née Fennell), Helen

(1905–92). Teacher, social worker and anti-apartheid and women’s rights activist.

Founding member of the COD. National secretary of FEDSAW. Leading organiser of the Women’s March of 20,000 women to Pretoria’s Union Buildings. An accused in the 1956 Treason Trial. Placed under house arrest in 1962. Helped care for Zindzi and Zeni Mandela when their parents were both imprisoned. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1992.

Kantor, James

(1927–75). Lawyer. Despite not being a member of the ANC or MK, he was put on trial at Rivonia, possibly due to the fact that his brother-in-law and business partner was Harold Wolpe who had been arrested at Liliesleaf Farm. Was later acquitted and fled South Africa.

Kathrada, Ahmed Mohamed (Kathy)

(1929–). Anti-apartheid activist, politician, political prisoner and MP. Leading member of the ANC and of the SACP. Founding member of the Transvaal Indian Volunteer Corps and its successor, the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress. Imprisoned for one month in 1946 for his participation in the SAIC’s Passive Resistance Campaign against the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act. Convicted for his participation in the 1952 Defiance Campaign. Banned in 1954. Co-organiser of the Congress of the People and a member of the Congress Alliance General Purpose Committee. Detained during the 1960 State of Emergency. One of the last thirty accused in the Treason Trial acquitted in 1961. Placed under house arrest in 1962. Arrested at Liliesleaf Farm in July 1963 and charged with sabotage in the Rivonia Trial. Imprisoned on Robben Island, 1964–82, then Pollsmoor Prison until his release on 15 October 1989. MP from 1994, after South Africa’s first democratic elections, and served as political advisor to President Mandela. Chairperson of the Robben Island Council, 1994–2006. Awarded Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, the ANC’s highest honour, in 1992; the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award from the President of India, and several honorary doctorates.

Khoikhoi

Original inhabitants of South Africa. The Khoikhoi were pastoral people who depended on their cattle and sheep for subsistence.

Kotane, Moses

(1905–78). Anti-apartheid and political activist. Secretary general of the SACP, 1939–78. Treasurer general of the ANC, 1963–73. Defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial. One of the twenty accused in the Defiance Campaign trial. In 1955 he attended the Bandung Conference in Indonesia. Detained in the 1960 State of Emergency, then placed under house arrest. He went into exile in 1963. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1975.

Kruger, James (Jimmy)

(1917–87). Politician. Minister of Justice and Police, 1974–79. President of the Senate, 1979–80. Member of the National Party. Infamously remarked that Steve Biko’s death in detention in 1977 left him ‘cold’.

Luthuli, Chief Albert John Mvumbi

(1898–1967). Teacher, anti-apartheid activist and minister of religion. Chief of Groutville Reserve. President-general of the ANC, 1952–67. From 1953 he was confined to his home by government bans. Defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial. Sentenced to six months (suspended) in 1960 after publicly burning his passbook and calling for a national day of mourning following the Sharpeville Massacre. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his non-violent role in the struggle against apartheid. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1955 at the Congress of the People.

Machel, Graça (née Simbine)

(1945–) Mozambican teacher, human rights activist, international advocate for women’s and children’s rights, and politician. Married Nelson Mandela, July 1998. Widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel (d. 1986). Member of the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) which fought for and won independence from Portugal in 1976. Mozambican Minister for Education and Culture after independence. Among numerous awards she has received the United Nations’ Nansen Medal in recognition of her long-standing humanitarian work, particularly on behalf of refugee children.

Madikizela-Mandela, Nomzamo Winifred (Winnie)

(1936–). Social worker and anti-apartheid and women’s rights activist. Member of the ANC. Married to Nelson Mandela, 1958–96 (separated 1992). Mother of Zenani and Zindziswa Mandela. First qualified black medical social worker at the Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg. Held in solitary confinement for seventeen months in 1969. Placed under house arrest from 1970 and subjected to a series of banning orders from 1962 to 1987. Established the Black Women’s Federation, 1975, and the Black Parents’ Association, 1976, in response to the Soweto Uprising. President of the ANC Women’s League, 1993–2003. ANC MP.

Maharaj, Satyandranath (Mac)

(1935–). Academic, politician, political and anti-apartheid activist, political prisoner and MP. Leading member of the ANC, SACP and MK. Convicted of sabotage in 1964 and sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment which he served on Robben Island. Helped to secretly transcribe Mandela’s autobiography,
Long Walk to Freedom
, and smuggled it out of prison when he was released in 1976. Commanded Operation Vulindlela (Vula), an ANC underground operation to establish an internal underground leadership. Maharaj served on the secretariat of CODESA. Minister of Transport, 1994–99. Envoy to President Jacob Zuma.

Maki

(
See
Mandela, Makaziwe.)

Makwetu, Clarence

(1928–). Political and anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner. Member of the

ANCYL. Co-founder and later president of the PAC, 1990–96. Charged with furthering the aims of the PAC in 1963 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. Following his release from Robben Island he was escorted to the Transkei, but was banished by his cousin K D Matanzima in 1979. First president of the Pan Africanist Movement (PAM), the front organisation of the PAC, 1989. MP following the 1994 democratic elections. Recipient of the Order of Luthuli in Silver.

Mandela, Evelyn Ntoko

(
See
Mase, Evelyn Ntoko.)

Mandela, Madiba Thembekile (Thembi)

(1945–69). Mandela’s eldest son to his first wife, Evelyn. Died in a car accident.

Mandela, Makaziwe

(1947). Mandela’s first-born daughter to his first wife, Evelyn. Died at nine months old.

Mandela, Makaziwe (Maki)

(1954–). Mandela’s second-born daughter to his first wife, Evelyn.

Mandela, Makgatho (Kgatho)

(1950–2005). Mandela’s second-born son to his first wife, Evelyn. Lawyer. Died of AIDS complications on 6 January 2005 in Johannesburg following the death of his second wife, Zondi Mandela, who died from pneumonia as a complication of AIDS in July 2003.

Mandela, Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla

(d. 1927). Chief, counsellor and advisor. Descendant of the Ixhiba house. Mandela’s father. Deprived of his chieftainship following a dispute with a local white magistrate.