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'sJewish parents, Julius First and Matilda Levetan, emigrated to South Africa fromLatvia in 1906 and became founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the forerunner of theSouth African Communist Party (SACP). Ruth First was born in 1925 and brought up inJohannesburg. Like her parents, she joined the Communist Party,[1] 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 from theUniversity of the Witwatersrand in 1946. 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,[1] and got to know, among other fellow students,Nelson Mandela, futurePresident ofSouth Africa, andEduardo Mondlane, the first leader of the Mozambique freedom movementFRELIMO.
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. First then became the editor-in-chief of the radical newspaperThe Guardian, which was subsequently banned by the state.[1] Through investigative journalism, First exposed the racial segregation policies known asapartheid, targeting black South Africans following the rise of the National Party in 1948.[2]
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.[2]
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.[3] 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.[1]
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.[4]
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. In 1963, during another government crackdown, 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.[5]
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In March 1964, First went into exile inLondon, where she became active in the BritishAnti-Apartheid Movement. 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.[6] 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.[7][8] Bridget O'Laughlin, an anthropologist working with First, was in First's office when she was murdered, and testified to theTruth and Reconciliation Commission.[9]
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".[5]
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.[10]
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.[11]
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.[12]
In 2005, the South African Department of Environmental Affairs launched anenvironmental patrol vessel namedRuth First.[13]
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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