Ruth First: South Africa’s Unyielding Anti‑Apartheid Scholar Assassinated in Mozambique

When Ruth First, anti‑apartheid activist and journalist, was killed by a letter bomb in Maputo on August 17, 1982, the world lost a scholar who blended rigorous research with frontline resistance.

Born on May 4, 1925, in Johannesburg to Eastern‑European Jewish immigrants who helped found the Communist Party of South Africa, First grew up in a household where politics was dinner‑table conversation. Her early education at the University of the Witwatersrand steered her into sociology and anthropology, but it was the campus communist cell that sparked a lifelong commitment to multiracial justice.

Early Life and Political Awakening

While still a student in 1945, First helped launch a multi‑racial student group that defied the segregationist policies of the time. Shortly after graduating, she took a job as a research assistant for Johannesburg’s Social Welfare Division before landing the editorship of The Guardian in 1946 – a newspaper brave enough to publish the voices of the oppressed. The state banned the paper within a year, marking the first of many government crackdowns that would follow her career.

In 1949 she married Joe Slovo, a fellow SACP member and chief organizer of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. Their partnership became the backbone of a network that linked trade‑union militants, intellectuals, and underground operatives across Southern Africa.

Journalism, the Freedom Charter, and the Treason Trial

After the 1950 ban of the original Communist Party, First helped rebuild its successor, the underground South African Communist Party (SACP). In 1953 she co‑founded the Congress of Democrats, the white wing of the broader Congress Alliance, and began editing the journal Fighting Talk, which amplified the Alliance’s call for a non‑racial future.

One of her most enduring contributions was drafting the Freedom Charter, a document that outlined a vision of equal rights, land reform, and universal suffrage. Although a banning order kept her from attending the historic Kliptown gathering on June 25‑26, 1955, her fingerprints are on every paragraph of that charter.

Later that decade, First, Slovo, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Albert Luthuli and more than 150 other leaders were hauled into the infamous Treason Trial. The state attempted to crush the movement by dragging them through a four‑year‑and‑six‑month legal marathon. All were acquitted on March 29, 1961, but many, including First, returned to the streets under fresh banning orders.

Exile, UN Work, and Academic Leadership

Following the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, First fled to Swaziland with her three daughters, only to return briefly when the emergency was lifted. In 1963 she was arrested and endured 117 days of solitary confinement under the General Laws Amendment Act’s 90‑day detention clause – a period she later chronicled in the searing memoir 117 Days. Shortly after her release, she left South Africa for London, where she consulted for the United Nations on human‑rights violations in Southern Africa from 1964 to 1977.

During those years she also edited the successor newspaper New Age and helped shape the first broadcasts of Radio Freedom, the ANC’s clandestine voice that reached listeners across the continent. In 1977, the Mozambican government appointed her professor and research director at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, where she authored dozens of scholarly works, including the groundbreaking study The South African Connection: Western Investment in Apartheid. Her research made clear how foreign capital bolstered the regime’s brutal apparatus.

Assassination and Legacy

On August 17, 1982, a letter bomb—engineered by South Africa’s security police—detonated in her Maputo office, killing First at age 57. The murder shocked the international community and underscored the lengths the apartheid state would go to silence dissent.

Ronnie Kasrils, former ANC minister and author of *The Unlikely Secret Agent*, later described First as "an outstanding revolutionary, a dangerous thorn in apartheid’s flesh." The South African Presidency has since hailed her as a model of "ultimate patriotism and love for humanity," a description that captures both her sacrifice and the intellectual rigor she brought to every campaign.

Her legacy lives on through the Ruth First Educational Trust at Durham University, where scholars continue to explore activist‑research methodologies she pioneered. The trust funds fellowships, archives her writings, and hosts public lectures that keep her ideas in circulation.

Why Ruth First Matters Today

First’s blend of investigative journalism, academic research, and street‑level organizing offers a template for modern activists confronting systemic oppression. Her work on the Freedom Charter laid the constitutional groundwork for post‑apartheid South Africa, and her UN reports still inform scholars examining how multinational corporations profit from racialized labor.

In a time when authoritarian regimes still weaponise surveillance and misinformation, First’s insistence on fact‑based, community‑driven narratives feels especially relevant. As movements for climate justice and racial equity cite her strategies, the lesson is clear: rigorous scholarship can be a weapon, and courage can turn ideas into lasting change.

Key Facts

• Born: May 4, 1925, Johannesburg.
• Assassinated: August 17, 1982, Maputo, Mozambique.
• Primary roles: anti‑apartheid activist, journalist, UN researcher, professor.
• Key affiliations: South African Communist Party, African National Congress, Eduardo Mondlane University.
• Notable works: 117 Days, The South African Connection, editor of New Age.