by Charmain Naidoo
08 November 2018
Ruth First, journalist, academic and political activist, graduated Jeppe High School going to be one of the most notable women in South Africa’s anti-apartheid historical movement. Tragically, she was killed by a parcel bomb addressed specifically to her in Mozambique, where she worked in exile from South Africa. In 2010, the Ruth First Jeppe Memorial Trust was established to keep her memory alive at her alma mata emphasizing reading, education, and activism.
The Trust celebrated it’s ninth birthday with an event at the school in which author, activist and educator Elinor Sisulu, was the keynote speaker. The evening began with the audience treated to a rare recording of Ruth speaking at a birthday held for Walter Sisulu (in absentia, since he was a political prisoner on Robben Island) in 1982. In it, she speaks of a man committed and decisive, yet not authoritarian; a man of the liberation who was also a liberated man, a man without malice. The speech, trust manager Kevin Tait told the audience, was made just three months before Ruth’s assassination.
First’s commitment to freedom lives on in the young women who are educated through the Trust set up in her name. A total of 14 girls, all in Grade 7 and from a host of feeder schools in and around Gauteng, were inducted into the very special and rarified “Ruth First Club”. On hand to welcome The Ruthies, as they are affectionately known at Jeppe Girls, was Grade 11 Ruthie, Marlene Angwafor.
Each of the young beneficiaries of the Memorial Trust, who will join other Ruthies at Jeppe Girls in 2019 to complete their schooling, was given a subject to which they spoke for a minute each:
Elinor Sisulu, Puku’s Executive Director, also spoke at the event and expressed her joy at the opportunities the trust has given young girls.
“I have been worried about the lack of knowledge that comes from the lack of reading, resulting in criticism without knowing why,” she shared. “I am happy that this is not the case at this school, Jeppe Girls High, home to the beneficiaries of the Ruth First Memorial Trust. The next woman president is likely to come from this group of young women.” She stresses that there remains an urgent need to “honour women who have brought us to where we are now (such as) Charlote Maxeke, religious leader, social worker and political activist; Olive Shreiner and Ruth First. We need to tell their stories and remember them.”
Elinor joined an august company of speakers who have included Gillian Slovo (Ruth’s middle daughter who launched the Trust) and Justice Albie Sachs, former Constitutional Court Judge who is a patron of the Trust. Graca Machel, Ahmed Kathrada, Gill Marcus (former Reserve Bank Governor) and Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron have also all spoken at this prestigious event.
“Reading brings thought and reflection. Without reading we are in a dangerous place where we are vulnerable to outside influences,” Elinor Sisulu.
At the end of the function, to thank Elinor for giving of her time, a Grade 10 Ruthie, Vanessa Ndiangang, read out her thoughtful review of the abridged version of Elinor’s book “Albertina Sisulu.”
“I am inspired by the everyday feminists of the 21st century, like Priyanka Chopra,” Ndiangang shared. “They continue to empower me and remind me that the future is not one in which there is fear, oppression and discrimination but rather one of hope, opportunity and collaboration between all people.”
Learn more about the Ruth First Jeppe Memorial Trust.
