First, (Heloise) Ruth (1925-1982)

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): ICS 117

Title: First, (Heloise) Ruth (1925-1982)

Date(s): 1889 - 1991 [predominantly 1946-1982]

Level of description: Fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 95 boxes

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): First, Heloise Ruth, 1925-1982, journalist, author, anti-apartheid campaigner

Ruth First Memorial Trust

Ainslie, Rosalynde, Trustee of the Ruth First Trust

Administrative/Biographical history: Heloise Ruth First was born on 4 May 1925 in Johannesburg, the daughter of Julius and Matilda ('Tilly') First, Jewish emigrants to South Africa from Latvia. Her parents were members of the International Socialist League and founder members of the South African Communist Party (SACP).

After attending schools in Johannesburg, Ruth First began a Social Science degree in 1942 at the University of Witwatersrand. Whilst at university, she helped found the left-wing Federation of Progressive Students, and also served as secretary of the Young Communist League and Progressive Youth Council.

On her graduation in 1945, First took a job in the Research Division of the Department of Social Welfare of Johannesburg City Council, but she resigned in 1946 in order to pursue a career in journalism. In the same year she produced pamphlets in aid of the miners' strike and was temporarily secretary of the Johannesburg offices of the South African Communist Party. In 1947, together with Michael Scott, she exposed a farm labour scandal in Bethal, Eastern Transvaal, in which black pass law offenders in the cities were being literally sold off.

Between 1946-1952 she was the Johannesburg editor of the weekly newspaper the Guardian, the mouthpiece of the SACP. When this publication was banned in 1952, it was restarted under the name Clarion, a pattern which continued throughout the next decade, the titles used being People's World, Advance, New Age and Spark. Between 1954-1963 she was also the editor of Fighting Talk, a Johannesburg based monthly.

In 1949 Ruth First married Joe Slovo. They had three daughters, Shawn (b.1950), Gillian (b.1952) and Robyn (b.1953). In 1950, First was named under the Suppression of Communism Act and her movements restricted. In 1953 she was banned from membership of all political organisations,
although in 1955 she helped draw up the Freedom Charter, a fundamental document of the African National Congress, and was later a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's military wing. In December 1956, she and Joe Slovo were among the 156 people charged in the so-called Treason Trial, although her indictment was dismissed in April 1959.

During the state of emergency following the Sharpeville shootings of March 1960, First fled to Swaziland with her children, returning after the emergency was lifted six months later to continue as Johannesburg editor of New Age (successor to The Guardian). In the following two years she wrote South West Africa (1963) a book which remains the most incisive history of early Namibia. During this time she helped to organise the first broadcasts of Radio Freedom from a mobile transmitter in Johannesburg.

In August 1963 she was arrested and detained in solitary confinement under the 90-Day Law for a total period of 117 days, following arrests of members of the underground ANC, the SACP and Umkhonto we Sizwe in Rivonia. In the trial, which followed, political leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki were sentenced to life imprisonment. Her father fled South Africa and soon after her release, effectively forced into exile, in March 1964 First also left South Africa with her children to join her husband, who had already fled the
country, in Britain.

The family settled in North London and First threw herself into anti apartheid politics, holding talks, seminars and public discussions in support of the ANC and SACP. Her book, 117 days, an account of her arrest and interrogation in 1963, was made into a film with First acting as herself.

During the 1960s First researched and edited Mandela's No Easy Walk to Freedom (1967), Mbeki's The Peasant's Revolt (1967) and Not Yet Uhuru: an autobiography of Oginga Odinga (1967). With Ronald Segal she edited South West Africa: travesty of trust (1967).

From 1964 she worked full-time as a freelance writer, before becoming a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester in 1972. Between 1973-1978 she lectured in development studies at the University of Durham, although she spent periods of secondment at universities in Dar es Salaam and Lourenco Marques (Maputo).

In the 1970s she published The barrel of a gun: the politics of coups d'etat in Africa (1970), followed by Libya: the elusive revolution (1974), The Mozambican miner: a study in the export of labour (1977), and, with others, The South African connection: Western investment in apartheid (1972).

In 1977 First was seconded to the Centre for African Studies, University Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo and then worked as director of a research training programme there between November 1978 and August 1982. She began work on the lives of migrant labourers, particularly those who worked on the South African gold mines. The results of this study were published as Black gold: the Mozambican miner, proletarian and peasant (1983). Following a UNESCO conference at the center, Ruth First was killed on 17 Aug 1982, when she opened a parcel bomb addressed to her at the above university.

Ruth First biography

Archival history: The collection is on indefinite loan to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and remains the property of the Ruth First Memorial Trust. The possibility exists that the papers will be transferred to South Africa at some stage in the future.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: The collection includes personal material of Ruth First and her immediate family such as correspondence and financial records, papers relating to First's work as a journalist in South Africa, as a university lecturer, an anti-apartheid activist, and as an author and editor of numerous books and articles on Africa and other political topics. Also included are research papers and printed material relating to First and her family, collected both during her lifetime and after her death.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement: The collection is divided into individual deposits which have been presented separately to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. As far as has been possible, the arrangement of the material within each deposit reflects the system of arrangement used by First, although much has been resorted. Throughout the hard copy version of this catalogue the series into which the collection is divided are shown with the reference, title and date underlined. Orderable files are described without underlining.

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Usual conditions apply. Access to personal papers must be granted by the Archivist at ICS in conjunction with the Chairman of the Ruth First Memorial Trust. Those wishing to access the tapes and tape transcripts require the written permission of the interviewee as well as of the Chairman.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Language/scripts of material: Predominantly English, with some material in Portuguese or other European languages. A few items use Afrikaans or African languages.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids: A paper catalogue list available at ICS, it was compiled by Matti Watton between Jun 2000-Mar 2001.

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description: The library at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies holds most of the books authored by Ruth First. A large number of printed books owned by First have also been deposited at ICS and the compilation of a list of these is planned. The ICS also holds papers relating to the following prominent South African figures: Mary Benson, Marion Friedmann, Baruch Hirson, Julius Lewin, Nelson Mandela, Edward Roux, Albie Sachs, Ben Turok and Phillip Vundla, together with some records of the ANC.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: February 2002

Interest: Black

Specific group:

Subjects

Labour

Broadcasting

Labour relations

Trade unions

Racial discrimination

Racial prejudice

Human rights

Civil and political rights

Political prisoners

Political doctrines

Collectivism

Communism

Ethnic groups

Black peoples

Interethnic relations

Racial segregation

Anti-apartheid movements

Apartheid

Personal/Corporate names

Carey, Kate, fl 1993, journalist

De Lanerolle, Jennifer Rosalynde, fl 1954-1993, nee Ainslie, author x Ainslie, Rosalynde

First, Heloise Ruth, 1925-1982, journalist, author and anti-apartheid campaigner

Fischer, Bram, 1908-1975, lawyer and political prisoner

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla, b 1918, President of South Africa

Mbeki, Govan, 1910-2001, South African politician and anti-apartheid campaigner

Pinnock, Don, fl 1987-2001, journalist and criminologist

Slovo, Gillian, b 1952, author

Slovo, Joe, 1926-1995, South African politician and anti-apartheid campaigner

Slovo, Robyn, b 1953, film producer

Slovo, Shawn, b 1950, author

Williams, Gavin, fl 1975-1981, economist

Advance, South African Communist Party newspaper

Africa Bureau

ANC

African National Congress

South African Native National Congress

Anti-Apartheid Movement

BBC x British Broadcasting Corporation

Clarion, South African Communist Party Newspaper

International Defence and Aid Fund

Learn and Treach, South African adult literacy organisation

Native Representative Council, South Africa

New Age, South African Communist Party Newspaper

Open University

Pan-Africanist Conference

People's World, South African Communist Party Newspaper

Review of African Political Economy x ROAPE

Ruth First Memorial Trust

South African Communist Party

Spark, South African Communist Party Newspaper

The Guardian, South African Communist Party Newspaper

UN, United Nations x United Nations

Univeristy Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo

University of Durham

Places

Southern Africa

Zimbabwe, Southern Africa

South Africa

Zambia

Zaire

Tanzania, East Africa

Sudan

West Africa

Senegal

Peru

Nigeria

Namibia

Malawi

Kampala

Ghana

Caribbean

Cuba

Angola

Algeria