21 Facts About Helen Joseph

Helen Beatrice Joseph OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist.

Helen Joseph was born Helen leruoe May Fennell in 1905 in Easebourne near Midhurst, West Sussex, England, the daughter of a government Customs and Excise officer, Samuel Fennell.

In 1923 Helen Joseph attended the University of Cape Town to study Zulu and Setswana, graduating from King's College London in 1927.

Helen Joseph served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II as an information and welfare officer.

Helen Joseph trained as a social worker and started working in a community centre in a Coloured area of Cape Town.

In 1951 Helen Joseph first met Solly Sachs when she applied for the job of Society.

Helen Joseph was a founder member of the Congress of Democrats, and one of the leaders who read out the clauses of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955.

Helen Joseph's opposition to the State had not gone unnoticed and she was a defendant at the 1956 Treason Trial.

However, Helen Joseph was arrested on a charge of high treason in December 1956 as a result of her anti-apartheid activism.

In 1957, Helen Joseph was banned from publicly opposing the government through her speech and protests.

Helen Joseph was one of six Jewish women on trial, the others being Ruth First, Yetta Barenblatt, Sonia Bunting, Dorothy Shanley, and Jacqueline Arenstein.

In 1962, Helen Joseph found most of the banished people then reunited them with their families and gave them supplies.

In spite of her acquittal, Helen Joseph became on 13 October 1962 the first person placed under house arrest under the Sabotage Act introduced by the apartheid government.

Helen Joseph narrowly escaped death more than once, surviving bullets shot through her bedroom and a bomb wired to her front gate.

Robben Island's prisoners had been released, and those present raised their glasses to Helen Joseph, who died shortly after.

The cottage was 35 Fanny Avenue, and moving into it in December 1956 was an act of faith and optimism, as Helen Joseph had been arrested just days before that, charged with treason, and faced trial for four years.

Helen Joseph had no children of her own, but frequently stood in for the children of comrades in prison or in exile.

Helen Joseph was viewed as a mother in the eyes of many activists, and for many years, they celebrated her on Mother's Day.

Helen Joseph died on 25 December 1992 at the age of 87, having been admitted to the Order of Simon of Cyrene in 1992, the highest honour the Anglican Church of Southern Africa bestows on lay members providing outstanding service.

Clifton School named a library after Helen Joseph, who taught there when she first came to South Africa.

Places named after Helen Joseph include former Davenport Road in Glenwood, KwaZulu-Natal, the Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg, a student residence at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, and roads in Rustenburg and Johannesburg.