South African History Online - SAHO

14/08/2026

If you are in Cape Town next week Wednesday join this panel discussion.

https://sahistory.org.za/upcoming-event/race-and-caste-hierarchy-and-universality-cas-partnership-dept-sociology-and-dept

This conversation marks the launch of Race and Caste: Hierarchy and Universality, a special issue of Critical Times that examines the intertwined histories and contemporary realities of racialized and caste-oppressed lives across South Asia, southern and East Africa, and the Caribbean. Extending the work of the Other Universals Collective, essays in the special issue examine how race and caste have shaped one another across time and space from sixteenth- and seventeenth century Americas to twenty-first century India and Africa. The panellists will especially attend to the themes of A***n race theory and the politics of mimesis, as well as the possibilities and limits of antiracist, anti-caste and feminist struggles in crafting more just futures beyond the constraints of the postcolonial present.

Abstract: This conversation marks the launch of Race and Caste: Hierarchy and Universality, a special issue of Critical Times that examines the intertwined histories and c

12/08/2026

Celebrating Women's Month: What did grief look like at the memorial for the first ANC-linked prisoner executed in two years?

Winnie Mandela at the Memorial Service for Benjamin Moloise, Johannesburg, October 1985

Benjamin Moloise, a Soweto upholsterer who began writing poetry while on death row, was executed by hanging at Pretoria Central Prison on 18 October 1985, after being convicted of the 1982 killing of a Black security policeman, a crime the African National Congress publicly claimed responsibility for while denying Moloise's direct involvement. His ex*****on, the first of an ANC-linked prisoner since three Umkhonto we Sizwe guerrillas were hanged in 1983, drew international condemnation, including appeals for clemency from both the United States and the Soviet Union, and triggered rioting in central Johannesburg the same day. That afternoon, a memorial service was held for Moloise at Khotso House in Johannesburg, attended by Winnie Mandela, who was herself under a banning order restricting her public speech at the time. Addressing mourners, she told the crowd "the struggle continues," while Moloise's own final words, written shortly before his death, included the line "the storm of oppression will be followed by the rain of my blood."

About South African History Online (SAHO)
South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-profit, open-access public history website archive initiative founded in 1998.

Source: Reuters
Photographer: Tladi

12/08/2026

Celebrating Women's Month: What was the only physical trace a mother had left of her murdered son?

Joyce Mtimkulu Holding Her Son's Hair, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 1997

Siphiwo Mtimkulu, a Congress of South African Students activist in Port Elizabeth, was detained by security police in 1981 and secretly poisoned with thallium while in custody, a rare, colourless and odourless chemical that caused his hair to fall out, left him unable to walk, and required months of hospital treatment at Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital. In April 1982, two weeks after he filed a civil suit against the Minister of Law and Order over the poisoning, Mtimkulu and his friend Topsy Madaka were abducted by security police, drugged, shot, and their bodies burned on a pyre. Mtimkulu's mother, Joyce, spent the following 15 years seeking answers, testifying before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and confronting his killers directly when four former security policemen, including retired general Nic van Rensburg, admitted responsibility for the murders during their 1997 amnesty applications. This photograph shows Joyce Mtimkulu holding a piece of her son's hair that fell out after the poisoning, one of the only physical traces of him she had left.

About South African History Online (SAHO)
South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-profit, open-access public history website archive initiative founded in 1998.

Source: The Herald
Photographer: Jillian Edelstein

12/08/2026

Celebrating Women's Month: Who played the title role in a musical about the Soweto uprising at just fifteen years old?

Leleti Khumalo, "Sarafina!" New York City Premiere, New York, 14 September 1992

Leleti Khumalo, born on 30 March 1970 in KwaMashu Township near Durban, was 15 years old when she was cast in the title role of Sarafina!, Mbongeni Ngema's musical about the 1976 Soweto uprising, after joining a youth dance group. The stage production ran on Broadway for two years before touring internationally, earning Khumalo a Tony Award nomination and, in 1987, an NAACP Image Award for Best Stage Actress. She reprised the role in the 1992 film adaptation, directed by Darrell James Roodt and co-starring Whoopi Goldberg, Miriam Makeba and John Kani, which became the biggest film production released on the African continent up to that point. Khumalo attended the film's New York premiere at the Guild 50th Theatre on 14 September 1992, days before its wider US release.

About South African History Online (SAHO)
South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-profit, open-access public history website archive initiative founded in 1998.

Source: Ron Galella Collection / Getty Images
Photographer: Ron Galella

12/08/2026

Celebrating Women's Month: How did apartheid's racial segregation play out on the Miss World stage in 1976?

Lynn Massyn and Rozette Motsepe, Miss World 1976, London

In 1976, apartheid South Africa entered two separate representatives in the Miss World pageant in London, a practice in place since 1970 that mirrored the country's system of racial segregation: Lynn Massyn, an 18-year-old textile student from Johannesburg, competed as "Miss South Africa," selected through a pageant limited to white contestants, while Rozette Veronica Motsepe, a 21-year-old social sciences student and model from Pretoria, competed separately as "Miss Africa South," representing the country's non-white population. The dual-entry system drew international condemnation; on 10 November 1976, the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee formally objected to the arrangement, and numerous countries, including Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Swaziland, withdrew their own contestants in protest at South Africa's presence. The backlash led to South Africa's expulsion from the Miss World pageant after 1976. In 2018, the Miss South Africa organisation publicly acknowledged the pageant's segregated history and moved to recognise Motsepe and the country's other previously unrecognised Black title holders.

About South African History Online (SAHO)
South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-profit, open-access public history website archive initiative founded in 1998.

Source: Vintage Photos
Photographer: Unknown

12/08/2026

Celebrating Women's Month: What did Drum magazine's vision of Black glamour look like in the 1950s?

Priscilla Mthimkhulu, Drum Magazine Model, South Africa, 1955

Priscilla Mthimkhulu was one of the models who appeared in Drum magazine's pages during the 1950s, an era when the magazine celebrated Black urban style, fashion and glamour alongside its political reporting. She was profiled by Drum writer Can Themba in a 1955 feature that introduced her as twenty years old and from Orlando East in Soweto, part of the magazine's broader fascination with the young, fashionable women who came to define its visual identity. Model photography by Drum's chief photographer, Jürgen Schadeberg, helped project an image of Black glamour and modernity that stood in direct contrast to the demeaning stereotypes Black South Africans faced under apartheid.

About South African History Online (SAHO)
South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-profit, open-access public history website archive initiative founded in 1998.

Source: The Drum Archive
Photographer: Jürgen Schadeberg

07/08/2026

In 2 days time we celebrate the 70th anniversary of historic 1956 Women’s March. This march played a vital role in South African women becoming more visible participants in the anti-apartheid struggle. See https://sahistory.org.za/article/1956-womens-march-pretoria
Please look at the following link - https://sahistory.org.za/search... - to see SAHO's extensive list of biographies, events, articles and archives relating to women in South Africa.

About South African History Online (SAHO)
South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-profit, open-access public history website archive initiative founded in 1998.

06/08/2026

In 3 days time we celebrate the 70th anniversary of historic 1956 Women’s March. This march played a vital role in South African women becoming more visible participants in the anti-apartheid struggle. See https://sahistory.org.za/article/1956-womens-march-pretoria

Please look at the following link - https://sahistory.org.za/search... - to see SAHO's extensive list of biographies, events, articles and archives relating to women in South Africa.

About South African History Online (SAHO)
South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-profit, open-access public history website archive initiative founded in 1998.