First, Ruth (1925–1982)

Ruth First was a lifelong communist and committed opponent of the South African regime as a journalist, writer, theorist, and activist. In 1953 she helped found the Congress of Democrats, was on the drafting committee of the Freedom Charter, and, along with her husband Joe Slovo, was a defendant in a 1956 treason trial. She was banned several times and detained in 1963, after which she went into exile in London. She published numerous influential books, as well as speaking and organizing in the anti-apartheid movement. In 1982 she was assassinated in Mozambique by the apartheid regime.

First was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, daughter of Latvian Jewish immigrants Julius and Matilda First, founder members of the Communist Party of South Africa (South African Communist Party, SACP, after 1953). In 1946 she received a bachelor's degree in social studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. At Wits, she organized the Federation of Progressive Students (FOPS) with Ismail Meer, Joe Slovo, Yusuf Dadoo, J. N. Singh, and others, as a radical alternative to the existing student organization. From 1947, First worked for the progressive newspaper, The Guardian, specializing in exposés of black labor conditions. In 1949 she married fellow activist and communist Joe Slovo. They had three daughters, Shawn (who scripted a film about First's detention, A World Apart), Gillian (who based her novel, Ties of Blood, on her family, and wrote a memoir of First, Every Secret Thing), and Robyn.

In 1953, First was involved in organizing the underground SACP, the communist party having been banned in 1950, and in founding the Congress of Democrats, the white wing of the Congress Alliance. She edited the journal, Fighting Talk, which supported the alliance. Though she worked on drafting the Freedom Charter, she was unable to attend the Congress of the People in 1955 because of her banning order.

In the state of emergency declared after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and the banning of the ANC, First fled to Swaziland with her children, returning 6 months later when the emergency was lifted. In 1963 she was detained following the arrests in Rivonia of leaders of the underground ANC, SACP, and Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC. She was not accused with them, but was detained under the 90-day clause. After being released, First left South Africa with her daughters and joined Slovo in London.

In exile, First worked actively in the anti-apartheid movement and did research and university lecturing. She wrote 117 Days, about her own detention, and numerous other books, including Power in Africa, Southwest Africa, and Olive Shreiner (with Ann Scott). In 1977 she was appointed Research Director of the Center for African Studies at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique, where [Page 570]she continued her research on migrant labor. In 1982 she was assassinated at the center by a letter bomb sent by the South African Bureau of State Security. Presidents, members of parliament, and ambassadors from 34 countries attended her funeral in Maputo.