Ruth First | |
|---|---|
 First c. 1960 | |
| Born | Heloise Ruth First (1925-05-04)4 May 1925 |
| Died | 17 August 1982(1982-08-17) (aged 57) |
| Occupation | Anti-apartheid activist |
| Spouse | Joe Slovo |
| Children | Shawn Slovo,Gillian Slovo,Robyn Slovo |
Heloise Ruth FirstOLG (4 May 1925 – 17 August 1982) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar. She was assassinated inMozambique, where she was working in exile, by aparcel bomb built by South African police.
Ruth First was born 4 May 1925 inJohannesburg to herJewish parents, Julius First and Matilda Leveta. Julius emigrated to South Africa fromLatvia when he was 10 years old, and Matilda emigrated fromLithuania when she was four years old. They were both anti-apartheid activists and became founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the forerunner of theSouth African Communist Party (SACP). Ruth First was brought up inKensington where she and her brother, Ronald First, were raised in a highly political household. At age 14, Ruth was a member of the Young Left Wing Book Club.[1] Like her parents, she joined the Communist Party,[2] which was allied with theAfrican National Congress in its struggle to overthrow the apartheid government of South Africa.
As a teenager, First attendedJeppe High School for Girls and then became the first person in her family to attend university. She received herbachelor's degree in Social Science from theUniversity of the Witwatersrand in 1946, receiving firsts in anthropology, economic history, sociology, and native administration.[3] While she was at university, she found that "on a South African campus, the student issues that matter are national issues". She was involved in the founding of the Federation of Progressive Students, also known as the Progressive Students League,[2] and got to know, among other fellow students,Nelson Mandela, futurePresident ofSouth Africa, andEduardo Mondlane, the first leader of the Mozambique freedom movementFRELIMO. She was also the secretary of theYoung Communist League and for a short time, was active in the Johannesburg CPSA.[3]
After graduating, First worked as a research assistant for the Social Welfare Division of the Johannesburg City Council. In 1946, her position in the Communist Party was boosted significantly after a series of mine strikes during which leading members of the Party were arrested. After this, First requested an interview with the Director of Social Welfare where she announced she would like to leave her department without serving her customary notice first. First then became the editor-in-chief of the radical newspaperThe Guardian, which was subsequently banned by the state under the Communism Suppression Act and often changed names due to repressive state actions and media censorship.[2] Through investigative journalism, First exposed the racial segregation policies known asapartheid, targeting black South Africans following the rise of the National Party in 1948.[4]
In 1949, she marriedJoe Slovo, a South African anti-apartheid activist and Communist, with whom she had three daughters,Shawn,Gillian andRobyn. Together, Slovo and First became a leading force in the 1950s protest era in which the government outlawed any movements that opposed their policies.[4]
In addition to her work withThe Guardian and its successors, theSouth African Congress of Democrats (COD), a White-only wing of the Congress Alliance, was founded in 1953 with support from First when the ANC expressed need for a group of White activists to endorse their policies and break through to members of the Nationalist party.[5]: 136 [6] In 1955, she assumed the position of editor of a radical political journal calledFighting Talk. First and Slovo were also members of the African National Congress, in addition to the Communist Party. She also played an active role during the extensive riots of the 1950s.[2] Ruth was on the drafting committee of theFreedom Charter, but was unable to attend its presentation on 25 June 1955 at the Congress of the People at Kliptown due to a banning order. Ruth also traveled to theInternational Union of Students and the founding conferences of theWorld Federation of Democratic Youth. She visited the Soviet Union, China, Britain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Germany, and France.[5]: 136
First was one of the defendants in theTreason Trial of 1956–1961, alongside 155 other leading anti-apartheid activists who were key figures in theCongress Alliance. First's early work and writings were largely used as evidence to prove treason on behalf of theCongress Alliance.[7]
Following four years of harassment by the state, First alongside the 155 other activists were all acquitted of their charges. After the state of emergency that followed theSharpeville massacre in 1960, she was listed and banned. She could not attend meetings or publish, and she could not be quoted. Her husband was arrested, and she fled toSwaziland with their children in order to avoid arrest. During the second half of the state of emergency, she returned to Johannesburg with her children secretly and lived underground.[5]: 137 In 1961, Ruth traveled toNamibia to interview the native Africans in the region. Though she was refused access to archived records, the material she collected during her four-day trip was used to write her first bookSouth West Africa (owning a copy was punishable by up to five years in prison).[8] Around this time she also helped arrange the first broadcasts of Radio Freedom in Johannesburg.[3] Following this trip, Ruth was restricted for five years to the magisterial district of Johannesburg. In 1963, during the raid onLilliesleaf Farm inRivonia, multiple high ranking activists including Nelson Mandela were captured and given life in prison. Neither Ruth or her husband was present at the time of the raid. However, Ruth was arrested by security police in the main hall of Witwatersrand Library. She was imprisoned and held in isolation without charge for 117 days under the Ninety-Day Detention Law. She was the first white woman to be detained under this law.[9] After she was detained, her home was searched by police where they found a copy of “Fighting Talk,” owning which was punishable by a minimum of one year in prison.[5]: 5 She was originally placed at Marshall Square police station, and many of her belongings were taken. Ruth’s cell door was bolted after she had an encounter with fellow activist Hazel Goldreich.[5]: 22
She was often questioned about her involvement in Rivonia, but she never revealed any information to the police. Her brother Ronald was also detained, though he was released three weeks later.[5]: 62, 91 Ruth was later moved to the Pretoria Central Prison where she was put under much higher security. She was eventually brought back to Marshall Square in Johannesburg and released on 7 November 1963.[5]: 98, 121 However, she was then arrested a second time for another period of 90 days after the Minister of Justice re-sentenced activists who served their 90 days without revealing information to the police (though she only served an extra 27 days).[5]: 123 While in prison, she performed a short-lived hunger strike.[5]: 127, 128 Ruth attempts suicide by consuming a bottle of pills prescribed to her to treat a stress-induced stomach ulcer, but she does not succeed in her attempt.[5]: 147–150 Ruth was released from prison 4 December 1963 with no charges.
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In March 1964, First went into exile inLondon, where she became active in the BritishAnti-Apartheid Movement. Ruth edited the biographies of Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, and Oginga Odinga in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. She travelled across Africa between 1964 and 1968 to study independence struggles in Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sudan. As a result, she was established as a scholar of international standing.[8] She was a Research Fellow at theUniversity of Manchester in 1972, and between 1973 and 1978 she lectured in development studies at theUniversity of Durham. She also spent periods on secondment at universities inDar es Salaam and Lourenço Marques,Maputo.
In November 1978, First took up the post of director of research at the Centre of African Studies (Centro de Estudos Africanos),Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo,Mozambique.[10] She was assassinated by the order ofCraig Williamson, a major in theSouth African Police, on 17 August 1982, when she opened a parcel bomb that had been sent to the university.[11][12] Bridget O'Laughlin, an anthropologist working with First, was in First's office when she was murdered, and testified to theTruth and Reconciliation Commission.[13] Presidents and ambassadors from 34 different countries were at her funeral in Maputo on 24 August 1982.[14]
First's book,117 Days, is her account of her arrest, imprisonment and interrogation by theSouth African PoliceSpecial Branch in 1963. It was first published in 1965. The memoir provides a detailed account of how she endured "isolation and sensory deprivation" while withstanding "pressure to provide information about her comrades to the Special Branch".[9]
Her daughter, the writerGillian Slovo, published her own memoir,Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, in 1997. It is an account of her childhood in South Africa and her relationship with her activist parents.[15]
The filmA World Apart (1988), which has a screenplay by her daughterShawn Slovo and was directed byChris Menges, is a biographical story about a young white girl living in South Africa with anti-apartheid activist parents, although the family is called Roth in the film.Barbara Hershey plays the character based on Ruth First.[16]
The 2006 filmCatch a Fire about the activistPatrick Chamusso was written by Shawn Slovo, and in it First is portrayed by another daughter,Robyn Slovo, who was also one of the film's producers.[17]
In 2005, the South African Department of Environmental Affairs launched anenvironmental patrol vessel namedRuth First.[18]
In March 2011, the country ofThe Gambia issued a postage stamp in her honour, naming her as one of theLegendary Heroes of Africa.
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