Ruth First

Ruth First, mural by Ben Slow (Wikimedia Commons, Derek Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0) On 17 August 1982, South African activist, scholar, and journalist Ruth First, known for her relentless opposition to South Africa’s discriminatory policy of apartheid, was assassinated in Maputo by a parcel bomb sent by agents of South Africa’s apartheid government.

Ruth Heloise First was born on 4 May 1925 in Johannesburg. She was the daughter of Jewish immigrants who were founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa. Like her parents, First joined the Communist Party, which was allied with the African National Congress in its struggle to overthrow the South African government.

After graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand, 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 newspaper The Guardian, which was subsequently banned by the state. Through investigative journalism, First exposed the racial segregation policies known as apartheid, targeting black South Africans following the rise of the National Party in 1948. In 1949 she married Joe Slovo, a South African anti-apartheid activist and Communist. Together, Slovo and First became a leading force in the 1950s protest era in which the government outlawed any movements that opposed their policies.

In addition to her work with The Guardian and its successors, the South African Congress of Democrats (COD), a white-only wing of the Congress Alliance, was founded in 1953 with support from First. In 1955, she assumed the position of editor of a radical political journal called Fighting 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.

First was one of the defendants in the Treason Trial of 1956–1961, alongside 156 other leading anti-apartheid activists who were key figures in the Congress Alliance. First's early work and writings were largely used as evidence to prove treason on behalf of the Congress Alliance. 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 the Sharpeville 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.

In March 1964, First went into exile in London, where she became active in the British Anti-Apartheid Movement. She was a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester in 1972, and between 1973 and 1978 she lectured in development studies at the University of Durham.

In November 1978, First took up the post of director of research at the Centre of African Studies (Centro de Estudos Africanos), at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique. On 17 August 1982, Ruth First was assassinated when she opened a parcel bomb, following a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) conference at the centre.

(Source: Wikipedia, edited)

Selected publications

About Ruth First

Ruth First : political journalist, researcher and teacher / Peter Garvin Williams.
In: Journal of contemporary African studies , vol. 32, no. 1, p. 13-34, 2014

Special issue: Ruth First: não vamos esquecer (we will not forget). - Abingdon : Routledge, 2014

Writing left : the radical journalism of Ruth First / Donald Pinnock. - Pretoria : University of South Africa, cop. 2007

Rivonia's children : three families and the price of freedom in South Africa / Glenn Frankel. - London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999

Every secret thing : my family, my country / Gillian Slovo. - London : Abacus (Little, Brown & Co.), 1997

By Ruth First

Voices of Liberation : Ruth First / Donald Pinnock. - Cape Town : Human Sciences Research Council, 2012

Black gold : the Mozambican miner, proletarian and peasant / Ruth First. - Sussex : The Harvester Press ; New York : St. Martin's Press, 1983

The barrel of a gun : political power in Africa and the coup d'état / Ruth First. - London : Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1970

One hundred and seventeen days : an account of confinement and interrogation under the South African Ninety-Day Detention Law / Ruth First. - Harmondsworth : Penguin Books, 1965

South West Africa / Ruth First. Harmondsworth : Penguin Books, 1963

Search form

Ruth First

Selected publications