Ruth First

Killed on 17 August 1982 in Maputo by a parcel bomb; the South African scholar and activist died at her desk at Eduardo Mondlane University.

Overview

First, journalist, historian, and author of books on Libya, the Mozambican revolution, and the mining economy, had been imprisoned under the apartheid ninety-day laws, exiled with her husband Joe Slovo, and taught at universities in Britain and Mozambique. The parcel, addressed in her name to her office, was attributed to the South African security police; the amnesty hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard applications from police involved, and civil claims continued for decades. Her death, like the 1982 raids on Maseru and the attempted killings of ANC figures across the front-line states, exemplified the apartheid state cross-border assassination program. Her daughters Gillian and Shawn Slovo became a filmmaker and writer; the Ruth First fellowship at Witwatersrand keeps her scholarship and journalism alive.