1905 - 1992

Founding Member of the South African Congress of Democrats, Founding member of the Federation of South African Women, Co-leader of the 1956 Women’s March, 1956 Treason Trialist

British-born Helen Joseph was a champion of black rights who was regularly victimized by the South African government for her involvement with various liberation organisations.

She became politically active in her forties in some of the largest anti-Apartheid protests of the day. She helped found the South African Congress of Democrats and was one of the speakers who read out clauses from the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955. She took a leading part, together with Lilian Ngoyi, in organising the 1956 Womens March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, which drew 20,000 women from around the country.

Joseph became the voice of the banned people of South Africa after she was put under house arrest in 1963 for a period of five years. She became the first white woman to be given this form of punishment. In a moving article Cry of the Banished, Joseph painted a grim picture of the plights suffered under this inhumane law. She endured a series of bans throughout her life, with the final ban only being lifted when she was 80.

Did You Know?

Joseph requested in her will to be buried in Sowetos Avalon Cemetery next to her friend Lilian Ngoyi. The double grave has since become a site of pilgrimage and a key heritage attraction.