|
Robben Island Maximum Security Prison
Maximum Security Prison is an inactive prison at Robben Island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometers (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. It is prominent because Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. After that, three former inmates of this prison Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe, and Jacob Zuma have gone on to become President of South Africa. It is a South African National Heritage Site as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. History Beginning in 1961, Maximum Security Prison was used by the South African government for political prisoners and convicted criminals. The maximum security prison for political prisoners closed in 1991 and the medium security prison for criminal prisoners was closed five years later in 1996. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robben Island
Robben Island ( af, Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrikaans name ''Robbeneiland'', which translates to ''Seal(s) Island''. Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, long north–south, and wide, with an area of . It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event. It was fortified and used as a prison from the late-seventeenth century until 1996, after the end of apartheid. Political activist and lawyer Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on the island for 18 of the 27 years of his imprisonment before the fall of apartheid and introduction of full, multi-racial democracy. He was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and was elected in 1994 as President of South Africa, becoming the country's first black president and serving one term from 1994–1999. In additio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abdallah Ibn Qadi Abdus Salaam
Abd Allah ( ar, عبدالله, translit=ʻAbd Allāh), also spelled Abdallah, Abdellah, Abdollah, Abdullah and many others, is an Arabic name meaning "Servant of God". It is built from the Arabic words '' abd'' () and '' Allāh'' (). Although the first letter "a" in ''Allāh'', as the first letter of the article ''al-'', is usually unstressed in Arabic, it is usually stressed in the pronunciation of this name. The variants ''Abdollah'' and ''Abdullah'' represent the elision of this "a" following the "u" of the literary Arabic nominative case (pronounced in Persian). Abd Allah is one of many Arabic theophoric names, meaning ''servant of God''. ''God's Follower'' is also a meaning of this name. Humility before God is an essential value of Islam, hence ''Abdullah'' is a common name among Muslims. However, the name of the Islamic prophet Muhammad's father was Abdullah. The prophet's father died before his birth, which indicates that the name was already in use in pre-Islamic Arabia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Gwala
Themba Harry Gwala (30 July 1920 – 20 June 1995) was a revolutionary leader in the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP) in South Africa. Biography Early career and activism Harry Gwala trained as a teacher at Adams College and taught at Slangspruit where his students included Moses Mabhida. In 1942, Gwala joined the Communist Party of South Africa, and in 1944 joined the ANC, and moved into trade union organisation in the chemical, construction, and rubber industries. He was among the organisers of a national stay-away in 1950, and was subsequently banned under the Suppression of Communism Act. Imprisonment From 1960, Gwala was involved in the ANC underground. In 1964, he was imprisoned on Robben Island for sabotage and recruiting for Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was released in 1972, after eight years, but restricted to Pietermaritzburg by a banning order. There, he established a laundry collection business as a cover for continued ANC acti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Gqabi
Joe Nzingo Gqabi (6 April 1929 – 31 July 1981) was a South African African National Congress activist, who was the ANC's chief representative in Zimbabwe at the time of his assassination by South African Defence Force in Ashdown Park, Harare (then Salisbury) in 1981. Early life Gqabi was born in 1929 in Aliwal North in what is now known as Joe Gqabi District Municipality. His first language was Xhosa. Political activity In the 1950s Gqabi was a journalist for ''New Age'', during which time he was in frequent contact with Walter Sisulu. As a member of the South African Communist Party and UMkhonto we Sizwe he was sent for guerilla training in China in the early 1960s. He was captured with 28 fellow members who were undergoing military training in Rhodesia and deported back to South Africa, where he was sentenced to two years' jail for leaving the country illegally and then ten years for crimes under the Sabotage Act, after which he was jailed at Robben Island. He rejoined the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Ekandjo
Jerry Lukiiko Ekandjo (born 17 March 1947) is a Namibian politician, former anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner. He is one of the founding members of the SWAPO Youth League and has been one of the most active internal leading members of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) during the liberation struggle. He spent eight years in prison on Robben Island after being charged for inciting violence in 1973. Ekandjo has been a member of the cabinet of Namibia from independence in 1990 until 2018, serving the SWAPO government in various ministerial positions. His last appointment was Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, from which he was recalled in early 2018. In 2012 he was a candidate for the vice-president of SWAPO and came second to Hage Geingob who eventually became the president of Namibia in 2015. In 2017 Ekandjo was nominated as a candidate for the president of SWAPO and came second again to Hage Geingob. Political career Ekandjo was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Daniels (political Activist)
Edward Daniels (25 October 1928 - 30 November 2017) was a South African people, South African former anti-apartheid activist who spent fifteen years as a political prisoner on Robben Island, during the years that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there. Early life With an English-born father and a Coloured mother, Daniels was automatically racially classified as Coloured, a term he took exception to. He preferred to be called South African. His childhood was largely happy in the neighbourhoods of District Six and Lavender Hill, Cape Town. Encounters with gangs and police injustice helped to form his ideas of fairness and decent behaviour. Living close to Table Mountain, Daniels and his friends had plenty of opportunity to spend time walking and climbing. Education and work Daniels attended local schools, and finished his schooling with a standard six certificate (grade eight). He had various small jobs while still a schoolboy, and eventually, shortly after the end of World War I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim
Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim (1 July 19376 December 2021) was a South African anti-apartheid activist of Indian origin who was a member of the African National Congress's armed wing uMkhonto we Sizwe''.'' He was tried in the Pietermaritzburg sabotage trials of 1963 and was sentenced to a 15-year imprisonment at the Robben Island Maximum Security Prison. Popularly known as Ebie, he served as a lawmaker in the first democratically elected government of South Africa in 1994 and also served as the country's deputy minister for international relations between 2009 and 2014. Early life Ebrahim was born in Durban in 1937 to parents, Hafeeza and Mohammed Adam Modan, of Indian origin. His father was from the Indian state of Gujarat and traveled to South Africa in 1933, while his mother was born in South Africa. His father took the surname Ebrahim from the family with whom he had traveled to South Africa. Ebrahim's schooling was taken care of by his grandmother after the authorities denie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Rivonia Trial
The Little Rivonia Trial was a South African apartheid-era court case in which several members of the armed resistance organization Umkhonto we Sizwe faced charges of sabotage. The accused were: Laloo Chiba, Dave Kitson, Mac Maharaj, John Matthews and Wilton Mkwayi. A confederate of theirs, Lionel Gay turned state witness, and in return, the prosecution dropped the charges against him. Judge W. G. Boshoff presided over the November to December 1964 trial, with human rights lawyer George Bizos one of the advocates appearing for the defence. All the accused were found guilty. Maharaj's legal representatives were expecting that he would receive the death penalty for his Central Committee membership of the South African Communist Party, a banned organization at the time. During the sentencing phase Mkwayi would simply say in his defence: "My Lord, I am a professional agitator". Mkwayi received a life sentence; Kitson twenty years; Chiba eighteen years; Matthews fifteen years and Maha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laloo Chiba
Ishwarlal Laloo "Isu" Chiba (5 November 1930 – 8 December 2017) was a South African politician and revolutionary. He was arrested and sentenced at the Little Rivonia Trial The Little Rivonia Trial was a South African apartheid-era court case in which several members of the armed resistance organization Umkhonto we Sizwe faced charges of sabotage. The accused were: Laloo Chiba, Dave Kitson, Mac Maharaj, John Matthe ... in 1964 with Mac Maharaj and Wilton Mkwayi to join Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and other revolutionary prisoners on Robben Island. Early life He was born to a Hindu family in Johannesburg. As a child he attended Bree Street Primary School and later Johannesburg Indian High School in Fordsburg. He married Luxmi in India on 5 May 1952. In the early 1950s, Chiba became friends with Ahmed Kathrada, Herbie Pillay and Bobby and Tommy Vassen, all members of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress (TIYC). Revolutionary Prior to the events in Sharpville, Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, first post-apartheid election installed Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. Cyril Ramaphosa, the incumbent national President, has served as President of the ANC since 18 December 2017. Founded on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), the organisation was formed to agitate, by moderate methods, for the rights of black South Africans. When the National Party (South Africa), National Party government came to power 1948 South African general election, in 1948, the ANC's central purpose became to oppose the new government's policy of institutionalised apartheid. To this end, its methods and means of organisation shifted; its adoption of the techn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
