Who was Helen Joseph?
JOBURG – Helen Jospeh's name is recognised across South Africa, who was she?
She has a hospital named after her, but did you know … Helen Joseph was also an anti-apartheid activist?
According to her obituary – written in 1992 in the Independent by Ameen Akhalwaya, reads: “She was born in Midhurst Sussex in 1905 and died in Johannesburg on 25 December 1992. She didn’t resemble the conventional picture of a freedom fighter. Helen Joseph, rather tall and upright, her spectacles often hiding a mischievous twinkle, looked more like a dedicated headmistress in rural Sussex than a threat to the bully-boys of apartheid over the past 40 years in South Africa.”
The African National Congress gave Joseph its highest award of honour, Isithwalandwe/Seaparankoe, in 1992, an honour that was also given to Nelson Mandela in the same year. Isithwalandwe means, the one who wears the plumes of the rare bird.
Helen Joseph, along with Lillian Ngoyi spearheaded the protest march of 20 000 women to Pretoria’s Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 against the pass laws. Today, this day is celebrated in South Africa as Women’s Day.
A hospital in Johannesburg, a street in Pretoria, a street in Durban, a student residence at Rhodes University and more roads across the country are named after the activist.
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