Helen Joseph

Helen Joseph. Photo courtesy www.durban.gov.za

Helen Joseph dedicated much of her life to opposing the apartheid system in South Africa, and is remembered as one of the great political activists of that era. An event in which she played a significant role was the 9 August 1956 women's march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, to protest the pass law that ordered black women to carry pass books with them at all times. The protest was to have great impact on South African political history.

Joseph was born Helen Fennell in England in 1905 and arrived in Durban in 1930, where she married dentist Billie Joseph. A graduate in English from the University of London, she held various jobs as a teacher, a welfare officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during World War II, and a social worker, and became an author in later years. But it is for her political activism, particularly for the rights of black women, that she remains best known.

In 1951 she began working for the Garment Workers' Union led by Solly Sachs, who was to play a strong influence in her life. She then became a founder member of the Congress of Democrats that supported the African National Congress, and national secretary of the Federation of South African Women. At the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955 she was one of the leaders to read out clauses from the Freedom Charter.

After her involvement in the pass-law protest march, Joseph was arrested in December of the same year, on a charge of high treason. She was banned a year later and, even though acquitted of high treason after a five-year trial, her banning order remained in effect. During the trial she became great friends with former South African president Nelson Mandela, and helped care for his children in later years, during Mandela's incarceration. In 1962, she became the first person to be placed under house arrest and was also declared a "listed person", which prevented her from being quoted in any form. As a banned person she was also barred from attending social gatherings, and forbidden from having more than one visitor at a time. The restriction was lifted for a short period after she was diagnosed with cancer in 1971. But she recovered from the disease only to have the banning orders reinstated for a further two years.

Joseph survived several assassination attempts, and her last banning order was lifted when she was 80 years old. She wrote the books, If This Be Treason, Tomorrow's Sun and her autobiography,Side by Side.

At 85 years of age, Joseph passed away in Johannesburg on Christmas Day in 1992. She is buried in Avalon Cemetery near Soweto, which had been opened in 1972 as a graveyeard for blacks. Her grave is a National Heritage Site.