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Ruth First N- author, academic and revolutionary RUTH FIRST, murdered by a letter-bomb whereshb worked as a journalistand author. in on August 17, was one of the She threw herselfinto political activity in South African freedom movement's most Britain and waselected a memberof the na- respected and prestigious figures. A life- tional committeeand the executivecommit- time's commitment to the liberation struggle teeof the BritishAnti- Movement. earned her the love of her oppressed com- $he was a brilliant and indefatigablepublic patriots, while brilliance as an academic, speaker,addressing anti-apartheid meetings journalist and author won her the esteemof in Britain. the international community. Ruth was granted a year's research fellowship at ManchesterUniversity from Her death brought grief to thousands - 1972- 73. Shewas then appointeda lecturer from the black masses of , in sociologyat Durham University, where whosecause she so tirelesslyand courageous- sheworked from 1973to 1978.During this ly championed, to the politicians, scholars period, shewas also a visitinglecturer at the and journalists from mafly countries with Universityof Dar whom she had worked. es Salaam. There is little doubt about the identity of In December1978, Ruth went to Maputo her assassins.The African National Con- to take up the post of Director of Research gressof South Africa, which Ruth had serv- at the Centre. ed so well, merely gave voice to what we all Ruth First was a skilled and prolific paper was banned in 1962, its successor, knew when it accusedthe Pretoria regime of writer. Her best-knownbooks include1/7 Spork, was set up. But in this act of cold-blooded murder. 1963 the entire Days, an account of her imprisonmentin staff of the paper were banned. Despite her involvement with the ANC, SouthAfrica, South WestAfrica, a studyof Ruth First had no involvement in any Ruth married in 1949.In 1955, SouthAfrican colonialrule in Namibia, ?"fte military activity. She was director of she played an important role in Congressof Barrel of a Gun, about military rule in research at the Centre of African Studies in the People at Kliptown, which drew up the Africa, and Olive Schreiner,a biography of Maputo's University. fundamental document of the ANC, and its the SouthAfrican feministauthor. Dueto be published Her husband, South African militant, Joe partners in the , the this year is Block Gold, which Slovo, tells of how she pored over her . Both Ruth and Joe were Ruth co-authored with her colleaguesin academic researchpapers at home until the among the 156 defendants in the Treason Maputo, about migrant labour in the South small hours of the morning, often working a Trial which lasted from 1956 to 1961, and African mines. l5-hour day. resulted in defeat for the regime which was Shehas left a deepimpression on Mozam- Under the expert guidance of Ruth and unable to secureconvictions. bicans.After her death, PresidentSamora her chief, Aquino de Braganca, the Centre Machelsaid: "Her examplewill inspire,still carried out a seriesof studies into the rural In 1963 she was arrested and held in more, the South African people.They will economy of , problems of tran- solitary confinement for l17 days under the transform their sorrow and mourning into sition to socialism, and questions related to 90-day detention law. On her releasein 1964 an immenseforce for the destructionof the the advance of the Southern African Deve- she left South Africa and settled in Britain, Nazi-fascistregime of Pretoria." n lopment Coordination Conference,SADCC. Given the Pretoria regime's determination to wreck the SADCC alliance, it was natural that Ruth's incisive powers of analysiswere used in the study of South Africa itself. The A gallantfighter falls Centre produced many papers on aspectsof Pretoria's domestic and foreign policies. Ruth First was buried in Maputo on 22 part of a generation that planned, partici- The murder is a blow to the Centre but not August. A closecomrade and fellow South patedin, wrote aboutand sufferedfor all the as severeas her killers would have liked. Her African, Albic Sachs,reports: greatpolitical campaigns of our country. To colleaguEssay the those of a younger generation, shti was a Centre is now well-enough This morning,under a warrnlate-winter sky, established through work source of special admiration and love, a her to withstand a thousandpeople filed pastthe graveof our loss" woman who spokeon questionsof theory, the Director Braganca and American late comrade, colleagueand friend Ruth strategyand tactics with the authority nor- lecturer and researcher, Bridget O'Laughlin, First, assassinatedin her office by the South mally appropriated by men; r brave worker both wounded in the blast that killed Ruth, African securityservices. spoke of their in the underground, a cultivated and determination to keep up the The ANC choir in the backgroundsang work. brilliant pe$on who hated fuss and undue freedomsongs, in which the namesof Oliver 'r'ambo, ceremony, and yet who never found it Ruth First's contribution to Africa's and others ap- nece$saryto stoop to popullst gesturcs struggle for economic and political liberation pearedprominently, and membersof Ruth's to prove she wm part of began many years before she arrived in family. Prominent party and government the massstruggle. Maputo. Shejoined the South African Com- leadersfrom Mozambique,ANC leadersand Comrade Ruth, as she was known in munist Party as student at the University of othersdropped red carnationsand handfuli thousands of homes, ftrms, factories, of- Witwatersrand, and after the 1946 mine of sand on the coffin containing the blasted fices er{d locations in South Africa, lies strike, when party leaders were arrested, she remainsof one of the most noted revolu- buried alongsidethe 13 other ANC memberr temporarily became secretary of the Johan- tionary intellectuals and social scientists asssssinatedin the raid on Matola last yelr. nesburg party office. She was 21. thrown up by the struggle in Southern The revolution forges I new South African She began a journalistic career as the Africa in recentdecades. peoplethat knows no distinction of race,tge editor of the left-wing paper, Sinceher daysas a militant sludentat TVits or sex end a liberrted new nation of the liv- The Guardian, later New Age. When the in the 1940s,and until her death. Ruth was ing energiesfrom the nrtion of the falbnltr SEPTEMBER1982 MOTO 35