Helen Joseph

Born in Sussex, England, in 1905, she graduated from King's College, in 1927. After working as a teacher in India for three years, Helen came to South Africa in 1931, where she met and married Billie Joseph. She served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II as an information and welfare officer, and later became a social worker.

Related Topics:
England - 1905 - 1927 - India - South Africa - 1931 - World War II

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In 1951 Helen took a job with the Garment Workers Union, led by Solly Sachs. She was a founder member of the Congress of Democrats, and one of the leaders who read out clauses of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955. Appalled by the plight of black women, she was pivotal in the formation of the Federation of South African Women and with the organisation's leadership, spear-headed a march of 20,000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against pass laws on August 9, 1956. This day is still celebrated as South African Women's Day.

Related Topics:
1951 - Freedom Charter - August 9 - 1956 - Women's Day

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Arrested on a charge of high treason in December 1956 then banned in 1957, Helen became the first person to be placed under house arrest during the apartheid years. She narrowly escaped death more than once, surviving bullets shot through her bedroom and a bomb wired to her front gate. Her last banning order was lifted when she was 80 years old.

Related Topics:
1956 - 1957 - Apartheid

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Helen had no children of her own, but regularly stood in loco parentis for the children of comrades in prison or in exile. Among the children who spent time in her care were Winnie and Nelson Mandela's daughters Zinzi and Zenani and Bram Fischer's daughter Ilsa.

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Helen Joseph passed away in 1992 at the age of 87.

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