Zainunnisa "Cissie" Gool (6 November 1897 – 1 July 1963) was an anti-apartheid political and civil rights leader in South Africa. She was the daughter of prominent physician and politician

Abdullah Abdurahman Abdullah Abdurahman (18 December 1872 – 2 February 1940) was a South African politician and physician, born in Wellington, South Africa. He was the first Coloured city councillor of Cape Town, and the first ever Coloured South African to w ...

and mother Helen Potter James. Gool founded the National Liberation League and helped to create the Non-European United Front (NEUF). She was known and loved as the "Jewel of District Six" and "Joan of Arc" by South Africans as a champion of the poor.Cissie Cool
SAHA, retrieved 19 August 2014

Life

Zainunnisa Gool was born on 6 November 1897 to

, leader of the African Peoples Organisation (APO) which he had helped to form in 1902 and was also the first black South African to be elected to the Cape Town City Council in 1904, and Helen Potter James.

Education

Gool came from a radical background and she was tutored by both

Olive Schreiner Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a South African author, pacifist, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel ''The Story of an African Farm'' (1883), which has been highly acclaimed ...

and

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. Gool and her sister, Rosie, attended the

Trafalgar High School , motto_translation = As much as I am able , established = , type = Government-funded co-educational secondary day school , pushpin_map = Australia Victoria , pushpin_image = , pushpin_mapsize = 240 ...

District Six District Six (Afrikaans ''Distrik Ses'') is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. Over 60,000 of its inhabitants were History of South Africa in the Apartheid era#Forced removal, forcibly removed during the 1970s ...

in Cape Town which had been founded by her father, an advocate of equality in public education. The head of the school was

Harold Cressy Harold Cressy (1 February 1889 – 23 August 1916) was a South African headteacher and activist. He was the first Coloured person to gain a degree in South Africa and he worked to improve education for non-white South Africans. He co-founded a ...

who was championed by her father. She finished her secondary school education by a correspondence course at

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

. With this qualification, Gool enrolled to become the first

coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

woman to receive a master's degree from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

and in 1962, she became the first coloured female law graduate in South Africa and the first to be called to the Cape Bar.

Political work

From 1938 to 1951, Cissie represented Cape Town's District Six on the Cape Town City Council, and for several years was the only woman (and the first black woman) serving on the City Council. In 1949, she was elected chairperson of the city council's health committee, the first black woman in the country to serve in local government. Known as the "Jewel of District Six" she represented the people of that constituency in the council until her death in 1963, despite having been named as a Communist under the Suppression of Communism Act.

Family

Gool was the daughter of Dr. Abdullah Abdurahman and his wife Helen James Potter. She married Dr. A. H. Gool, with whom she had three children: Marcina, and medical doctors Rustum and Shaheen.

Reception and legacy

* Cissie Gool House, a housing occupation for modern-day commune *Cissie Gool Plaza,

*Cissie Gool Memorial, Longmarket Steer Plaza, Cape Town City Centre

References

1897 births 1963 deaths Anti-apartheid activists South African activists South African women activists University of Cape Town alumni South African people of Malay descent South African women lawyers 20th-century South African lawyers Alumni of Trafalgar High School (Cape Town) 20th-century women lawyers Women civil rights activists {{AntiApartheid-activist-stub