Ruth First

Ruth First was born on 4 May 1925 in Johannesburg, the daughter of Latvian Jewish immigrants who had fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe. Her parents were founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa, and Ruth grew up in a household where political activism was as natural as breathing. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she became involved in student politics and met her future husband, Joe Slovo.

Ruth became one of South Africa's most fearless journalists, using her pen to expose the brutalities of the apartheid regime. She worked for the Guardian newspaper and later became editor of the radical journal Fighting Talk. Her investigative reporting on the conditions in the townships, the pass laws, and the forced removals brought the realities of apartheid to readers around the world. She was not content to merely observe; she was an active member of the Communist Party and the ANC, participating in underground operations and political education.

In 1956, Ruth was one of the 156 defendants in the Treason Trial. Though the trial eventually collapsed, the experience of daily court appearances and government harassment took its toll. In 1963, while her husband Joe Slovo was in exile, Ruth was arrested and held in solitary confinement for 117 days under the Ninety-Day Detention Law. She was the first white woman to be detained under this draconian legislation. Her account of her imprisonment, "117 Days," became an international bestseller and a powerful indictment of the apartheid security apparatus.

After her release, Ruth joined her husband in exile in London, where she continued her work as a journalist and academic. She became a leading voice in the international anti-apartheid movement, writing extensively about South Africa and teaching at universities in Britain and Mozambique. In 1982, she accepted a position as director of research at the Centre for African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique.

On 17 August 1982, Ruth First was killed by a letter bomb sent by the South African security police. She was fifty-seven years old. Her assassination was a devastating blow to the anti-apartheid movement, but her writings and her example continue to inspire journalists and activists around the world. The Ruth First Memorial Lecture and the Ruth First Educational Trust honour a woman who proved that the pen, wielded with courage and conviction, can change the world.