You have probably been on Helen Joseph Road in Durban to visit some of the restaurants there but how much do you know about Joseph?
According to her obituary – written in 1992 in the Independent by Ameen Akhalwaya, “She was born in Midhurst Sussex in 1905 and died in Johannesburg on 25 December 1992. She didn’t resemble the conventional picture of a freedom fighter.”
“Helen Joseph, rather tall and upright, her spectacles often hiding a mischievous twinkle, looked more like a dedicated headmistress in rural Sussex than a threat to the bully-boys of apartheid over the past 40 years in South Africa,” reads the obituary.
According to SA History when Joseph came to South Africa, she worked as a social worker, and confronted first-hand the dire conditions of the poor and oppressed.
She then worked in a secretarial position in the Garment Workers Union, encouraged by Solly Sachs, the father of Albie Sachs. It was in this work-space, where 70% of the workers were black, that Joseph met Lilian Ngoyi, a garment worker, and they became comrades in arms.
Joseph was invited by Ruth First, Fr Trevor Huddleston, and the Bernsteins to join the Defiance Campaigns.
In 1954, the Federation Of South African Women was formed, with Albertina Sisulu as one of its founders, Joseph as the secretary, and Lilian Ngoyi as the Transvaal president.
In 1955, she was one of the leaders who read out the clauses of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People.
Joseph’s political activities were not looked upon kindly by the powers that were. She was a defendant at the 1956 Treason Trial and was the first woman who was subjected to house arrest in South Africa.
The Women’s March on 9 August 1956 was one of the most memorable moments of her illustrious political career, as she was one of the main organisers of the protest.
It is no surprise that she is called one of “the Mothers of the Struggle”.
Joseph passed away on December 25, 1992, in Johannesburg.
THIS WOMENS DAY WE GIVE THANKS TO HELEN JOSEPH FOR HER CONTRIBUTION IN SHAPING SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY.
Source: sahistory.org
