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 t
o 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.
Mandela, Nosekeni Fanny
(d. 1968). Mandela’s mother. Third wife of Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela.
Mandela, Winnie
(See Madikizela-Mandela, Nomzamo Winifred.)
Mandela, Zenani (Zeni)
(1959–). Mandela’s first-born daughter to his second wife, Winnie.
Mandela, Zindziswa (Zindzi)
(1960–). Mandela’s second-born daughter to his second wife, Winnie.
Marks, John Beaver (J B)
(1903–1972). Political and anti-apartheid activist and trade unionist. President of the ANC in the Transvaal. Chair of the SACP. Banned under the Suppression of Communism Act. President of the Transvaal Council of Non-European Trade Unions. President of the African Mine Workers Union (AMWU). Organised the 1946 African Mine Workers’ Strike. Deployed by the ANC to join the headquarters of the External Mission in Tanzania, 1963.
Mase, Evelyn Ntoko
(1922–2004). Nurse. Married to Nelson Mandela, 1944–57. Mother to Madiba Thembekile (1945–69), Makaziwe (1947) who died at nine months old, Makgatho (1950–2005) and Makaziwe (1954–). Cousin of Walter Sisulu who first introduced her to Mandela. Married a retired Sowetan businessman, Simon Rakeepile, in 1998.
Matanzima, Kaiser Daliwonga (K D)
(1915–2003). Thembu chief and politician. Mandela’s nephew. Member of the United Transkei Territorial Council, 1955, and an executive member of the Transkei Territorial Authority, 1956. Chief Minister of the Transkei, 1963. Established and led the Transkeian National Independence Party with his brother George Matanzima. First prime minister of the Transkei Bantustan when it gained nominal independence in 1976. State president of the Transkei, 1979–86.
Matthews, Professor Zachariah Keodirelang (Z K)
(1901–1968). Academic, politician, anti-apartheid activist. Member of the ANC. First black South African to obtain a BA degree at a South African institution, 1923. First black South African to obtain an LLB degree in South Africa, 1930. Conceptualised the Congress of the People and the Freedom Charter. Following the Sharpeville Massacre, with Chief Albert Luthuli he organised a ‘stay-away’, a national day of mourning, on 28 March 1960. In 1965 he retired to Botswana, and became its ambassador to the USA.
Mbeki, Archibald Mvuyelwa Govan (clan name, Zizi)
(1910–2001). Historian and anti-apartheid activist. Leading member of the ANC and the SACP. Served on the High Command of MK. Father of Thabo Mbeki (president of South Africa, 1999–2008). Convicted in the Rivonia Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. Released from Robben Island Prison, 1987. Served in South Africa’s post-apartheid Senate, 1994–1997, as deputy president of the Senate, and its successor, the National Council of Provinces, 1997–99. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1980.
Mbeki, Mvuyelwa Thabo
(1942–). Politician and anti-apartheid activist. President of South Africa, 1999–2008. Deputy president, 1994–99. Son of Govan Mbeki. Joined the ANCYL in 1956 at the age of fourteen. Left South Africa with other students in 1962. He quickly rose through the ranks of the ANC in exile, and underwent military training in the Soviet Union. He worked closely with O R Tambo and led the ANC delegation that held secret talks with the South African government, participating in all subsequent interactions with the South African government. He served as president of the ANC, 1997–2007.
Meer, Professor Fatima
(1928–2010). Writer, academic and anti-apartheid and women’s rights activist. Married Ismail Meer, 1950. Established Student Passive Resistance Committee in support of the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign against apartheid. Founding member of FEDSAW. First black woman to be appointed as a lecturer at a white South African university (University of Natal), 1956. Banned from 1953 and escaped an assassination attempt. She embraced the Black Consciousness ideology. Founded the Institute of Black Research (IBR), 1975. First president of the Black Women’s Federation, established in 1975. Author of Higher Than Hope (published 1988), the first authorised biography of Mandela.
Mhlaba, Raymond (clan name, Ndobe)
(1920–2005). Anti-apartheid activist, politician, diplomat and political prisoner. Leading member of ANC and SACP. Commander-in-chief of MK. Arrested in 1963 at Rivonia and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial. Imprisoned on Robben Island until he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in 1982. Released in 1989. He was involved in the negotiations with the National Party government leading to the democratisation of South Africa. Member of the ANC National Executive Committee, 1991. Premier of the Eastern Cape, 1994. South African High Commissioner to Uganda, 1997. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1992.
MK
(See Umkhonto we Sizwe.)
Mkwayi, Zimasile Wilton (clan name, Mbona; nickname, Bri Bri)
(1923–2004). Trade unionist, political activist and political prisoner. Member of the ANC and SACTU. Union organiser for African Textile Workers in Port Elizabeth. Volunteer in the 1952 Defiance Campaign, and later active in the campaign for the Congress of the People. Escaped during the 1956 Treason Trial and went to Lesotho. Joined Umkhonto we Sizwe and had military training in the People’s Republic of China. Became MK’s commander-in-chief after the arrests at Liliesleaf Farm. Convicted and sentenced to life in what became known as the ‘Little Rivonia Trial’. He served his sentence on Robben Island. Released October 1989. Elected to the Senate in the National Parliament in 1994, then deployed to the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature, where he served until his retirement from public life in 1999. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1992.
Mlangeni, Andrew Mokete (clan name, Mokotlwana; nickname, Mpandla)
(1926–). Anti-apartheid activist, political prisoner and MP. Member of the ANCYL, ANC and MK. Convicted at the Rivonia Trial in 1963 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Served eighteen years on Robben Island and was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in 1982. Awarded the ANC’s highest honour, Isitwalandwe Seaparankoe, in 1992.
Mompati, Ruth Segomotsi
(1925–). Anti-apartheid and women’s rights activist, MP, ambassador and mayor.
Typist for Mandela and Oliver Tambo at their law practice in Johannesburg, 1953–61. Member of the ANC. Head of the women’s division of the ANC in Tanzania. Head of the ANC’s Board of Religious Affairs. Founding member of FEDSAW. South African ambassador to Switzerland, 1996–2000. Mayor of Vryburg/Naledi, North West Province.
Moolla, Moosa Mohamed (Mosie)
(1934–). Anti-apartheid activist and diplomat. Member of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress (TIYC) and TIC. Full-time employee of the National Action Council for the Congress of the People. Among the last thirty accused in the 1956–61 Treason Trial. Detained and held in solitary confinement under the ninety-day law, 1963. Was re-detained but managed to escape by bribing a young guard, Johannes Greeff, and fled across the border to Tanzania. In 1972 he became the ANC’s chief representative in India. In November 1989 he was appointed the ANC representative to the World Peace Council. From 1990, he worked in the ANC’s Department of International Affairs in South Africa. He was the first South African ambassador to Iran, and then high commissioner to Pakistan until his retirement in 2004.
Moroka, Dr James Sebe
(1892–1985). Medical doctor, politician and anti-apartheid activist. President of the ANC, 1949–52. Convicted in the Defiance Campaign Trial in 1952. During the trial he appointed his own lawyer, disassociated himself from the ANC and pleaded for mitigation. As a consequence he was not re-elected president of the ANC, and was replaced by Chief Luthuli.
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