Helen Joseph

Helen Beatrice Joseph (née Fennell) (8 April 1905 – 25 December 1992) was a South African anti-apartheid activist.[1] Born in Sussex, England, Helen graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927 and then departed for India, where she taught for three years at Mahbubia School school for girls in Hyderabad. In about 1930 she left India for South Africa. She settled in Durban, where she met and married a dentist, Billie Joseph.[2]

Helen Beatrice Joseph
Helen Joseph 1941
Born(1905-04-08)8 April 1905
Easebourne near Midhurst, West Sussex, England
Died25 December 1992(1992-12-25) (aged 87)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Resting placeAvalon Cemetery
NationalitySouth African
Occupationanti-apartheid activist
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Early life

Helen Joseph was born Helen Beatrice May Fennell in 1905 in Easebourne near Midhurst, West Sussex, England, the daughter of a government Customs and Excise officer, Samuel Fennell.[3] Helen Joseph was a product of a middle class, white family.[4] She grew up in a racially prejudiced household.[5]

In 1923 she was admitted to the University of London to study English, and she graduated from King's College London in 1927. After working as a teacher in India for three years, Helen went to South Africa in 1931, where she met and married Billie Joseph, a Jewish dentist 17 years her senior.[6] She served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II as an information and welfare officer. After the war and a divorce, she trained as a social worker and started working in a community centre in a Coloured (mixed race) area of Cape Town.[7]

Later life

In 1951 Helen first met Solly Sachs when she applied for the job of Secretary-Director of the Medical Aid Society of the Transvaal Clothing Society. At the time, Sachs was the head of the Garment Workers' Union.[8]

Appalled by the conditions of black South Africans, she fought side by side with activists to gain greater rights, such as health care, freedom of speech, racial equality, and women's rights.[9] [10]She 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. Appalled by the plight of black women, she played a pivotal role, along with Lillian Ngoyi, in the formation of the Federation of South African Women. With its leadership, she spearheaded a March of 20,000 women on August 9, 1956, to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the pass laws. This day is still celebrated as South Africa's National Women's Day.[7]

Treason trial and house arrest

Joseph's opposition to the State had not gone unnoticed and she was a defendant at the 1956 Treason Trial. Justice Rumpff stated, "On all the evidence presented to this court and on our findings of fact, it is impossible for this court to come to the conclusion that the African National Congress has acquired or adopted a policy to overthrow the state by violence, that is, in the sense that the masses had to be prepared or conditioned to commit direct acts of violence against the state."

However, Joseph was arrested on a charge of high treason in December 1956 as a result of her anti-apartheid activism. In 1957, Joseph was banned from publicly opposing the government through her speech and protests.[4] The treason trial dragged on for four years and she was acquitted in 1961. Joseph was one of six Jewish women on trial, the others being Ruth First, Yetta Barenblatt, Sonia Bunting, Dorothy Shanley, and Jacqueline Arenstein.[11] While on trial for treason, Joseph learned that the government was forcing people out of the country and into remote areas if they were thought to have violated apartheid laws.[5] In 1962, Joseph found most of the banished people then reunited them with their families and gave them supplies.[5] 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 [12]. 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.[7]

In a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Paul Erasmus, a secret service operative, stated that from about 1978 till late in the 1980s, he and his colleagues had on many occasions damaged the property of Mrs Joseph by throwing stones through the windows of her house, made telephone threats, fired shots at the house but did not intend to injure any person, ordered and caused unwanted supplies to be delivered to her house, and poured paint remover over her motor car, as well as a car belonging to Ann Hughes, when the latter visited her.

The apartheid state's fear of her was puzzling: "How a weary old girl, an ou tannie like me can be a threat to state security only they can say." Joseph is quoted as saying.[13] From the late 1970s, Christmas Day was "Open Day" at Helen Joseph's house for those involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. All comrades brought food and at 12 noon everyone raised their glasses to those imprisoned on Robben Island. (Apparently the Robben Islanders were aware of the ritual.) On 25 December 1992, Joseph was in hospital and the venue moved to 11 Plantation Road, The Gardens. Robben Island's prisoners had been released, and those present raised their glasses to Helen, who died shortly thereafter.[14][15]

Personal life
Grave of Helen Joseph in the Avalon Cemetery

"On 31 December 1956, I moved into my little cottage with the tall trees, delighted to have a home of my own...." — Joseph was quoted as saying in 1986. The cottage was 35 Fanny Avenue, and moving into it in December 1956 was an act of faith and optimism, as Helen had been arrested just days before that, charged with treason, and faced trial for four harrowing years. It is tempting to speculate that Helen Joseph chose to live in Norwood because two of her fellow comrades, Bram Fischer in Oaklands, and Violet Weinberg in The Gardens, lived in close proximity. Whatever the reason for her choice, she would conduct her struggle against injustice from this address until her death in 1992. During that period she was banned four times, jailed four times, and she saw her life become a long saga of police persecution, much of it spent under house arrest.

Helen had no children of her own, but frequently stood in for the children of comrades in prison or in exile. She was viewed as a mother in the eyes of many activists, and for many years, they celebrated her on Mother's Day.[9] Among the children who spent time in her care were the daughters of Winnie and Nelson Mandela's – Zinzi and Zenani – and Bram Fischer's daughter, Ilsa.

Legacy and honours

Joseph died on 25 December 1992 at the age of 87.[16]

Joseph was admitted to the Order of Simon of Cyrene in 1992, the highest honour the Anglican Church of Southern Africa bestows on lay members who have provided outstanding service.[17] She was awarded the Isitwalandwe/Seaparankwe Medal by the ANC in 1992.

Places named after Helen Joseph include the former Davenport Road in Glenwood, KwaZulu-Natal, the Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg, a student residence at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, and a road in Rustenburg and Johannesburg.[18][19][20]

Published works
  • If this be Treason. London: Andre Deutsch. 1963. ISBN 978-0-620-22197-9. Helen Joseph's Dramatic Account of the Treason Trial, the Longest in South Africa's History and One of the Strangest Trials of the 20th CenturyCS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Tomorrow's Sun. New York: John Day Company. 1967. A smuggled journal from South AfricaCS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Side by Side: The Autobiography of Helen Joseph. New York: William Morrow & Co. 1986. ISBN 978-0-688-07103-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Helen Joseph. Johannesburg: Maskew Miller Longman. 1995. ISBN 978-0636022409.

See also

Notes and references
  1. Van Wyk 2003.
  2. "Obituary: Helen Joseph". 28 December 1992.
  3. Frederikse, Julie (January 1995). The Fought for Freedom: Helen Josephs. Cape Town: Maskew Millar Longman. p. 1. ISBN 0636022404.
  4. Cowell, Alan (1992-12-26). "Helen Joseph Dies in South Africa; Early Foe of Apartheid Was 87". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  5. Caine, Barbara (2008). "'A South African Revolutionary, but a Lady of the British Empire': Helen Joseph and the Anti-Apartheid Movement". Journal of Southern African Studies. 34 (3): 575–590. doi:10.1080/03057070802259811. ISSN 0305-7070. JSTOR 40283169.
  6. Lazerson, Joshua (1994). Against the tide : whites in the struggle against apartheid. Westview Press. p. 106. ISBN 0813384877.
  7. Rappaport 2001, p. 344.
  8. Joseph, Helen (1986). Side by side. Johannesburg: AD. Donker Publishers. p. 249. ISBN 0-86852-196-5.
  9. Healy-Clancy, Meghan. "The Family Politics of the Federation of South African Women: A History of Public Motherhood in Women's Antiracist Activism". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society 42: 843–866.
  10. Giokos, Eleni (August 17, 2016). "The four South African women who rattled the nation with anti-rape protest". CNN World.
  11. Weisse, Wolfram (2004). Religion, politics, and identity in a changing South Africa. Waxmann Munster. p. 47. ISBN 9783830913283.
  12. Caine, Barbara (2008). "'A South African Revolutionary, but a Lady of the British Empire': Helen Joseph and the Anti-Apartheid Movement". Journal of Southern African Studies. 34 (3): 575–590. doi:10.1080/03057070802259811. ISSN 0305-7070. JSTOR 40283169.
  13. "Truth Commission – Special Report – DecisionsTRC Final Report – Volume, Section, Chapter". sabctrc.saha.org.za.
  14. Anonymous (17 February 2011). "Helen Joseph". www.sahistory.org.za.
  15. Anonymous (31 March 2011). "Treason Trial 1956-1961". www.sahistory.org.za.
  16. "Helen Joseph | South African History Online". www.sahistory.org.za. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  17. "Historical Papers, Wits University". historicalpapers.wits.ac.za. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  18. "A Deeper Look at Johannesburg's New Street Names | The Heritage Portal". www.theheritageportal.co.za. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  19. "Joburg CBD streets renamed". eNCA. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
  20. "Welcome to the Helen Joseph Residence! Also known as "The Oasis"". www.ru.ac.za. 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2020-05-29.
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