Mary Benson (campaigner)

Born in 1919 in Pretoria,[4] Benson served in the South African Women's Army during World War II.[5] After the war, she was secretary to film director David Lean.[3][5]

Benson became acquainted with the author Alan Paton, and read his novel Cry, the beloved country (1948), whose main theme was racial discrimination in South Africa.[5] This affected her greatly, and she became a campaigner for the rights of black people there.[4][6]

She worked with Michael Scott (who, in 1946, was the first white man to be jailed for resisting South Africa's racial laws),[7] becoming his secretary in 1950.[8] With Scott, Benson helped to found the African Bureau.[5]

In 1957, Benson was appointed secretary to the Treason Trial Defence Fund.[8] In 1961, Benson took on another secretarial role, moving to Natal to assist Chief Albert Lutuli when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.[1]

Through all this work, Benson became familiar with the African National Congress (ANC). She assisted Nelson Mandela's escape from South Africa in 1962,[8] and interviewed several prominent figures in the ANC, including Walter Sisulu and James Calata.[9] Based upon these experiences, she wrote the first general history of the ANC: The African Patriots (Faber & Faber, London, 1964).[9]

She testified to the United Nations Committee on Apartheid in 1963, and was the first South African to do so.[6] She was placed under house arrest and "banned" in 1966.[8] She subsequently left the country and lived in exile, settling in London, England.[4][1]

Benson's biography of Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandela: the Man and the Movement (1986), was the second biography of Nelson Mandela to be written.[10] It was banned in apartheid South African upon its publication.[4]

Benson was close friends with the playwright Athol Fugard. She edited his Notebooks 1960-1977 (Faber and Faber, 1983) and wrote Athol Fugard and Barney Simon: Bare Stage, a Few Props, Great Theater (Ravan Press, 1997).[4][11][12]

She appeared as a "castaway" on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 16 February 1997.[6]

A few months prior to Benson's death, Nelson Mandela visited her at her flat in London.[1][13]

Benson died on 19 June 2000.[4][5] Her papers, including correspondence with Semane Molotlegi and those relating to her biography of Tshekedi Khama, are archived in the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Oxford.[5] Other papers, including material relating to her biography of Nelson Mandela and correspondence with fellow anti-apartheid activists, forms part of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies archive collections held at Senate House Library.[14]

• The Tragedy of Apartheid. Christian Action. 1958.[15]
• The Badge of Slavery (The pass laws of South Africa). Christian Action. 1960.[16]
• Tshekedi Khama. Faber and Faber. 1960.[17]
• Chief Albert Lutuli of South Africa. Oxford University Press. 1963.[18]
• African Patriots. The story of the African National Congress of South Africa. Faber and Faber. 1963.[9]
• South Africa: The Struggle for a Birthright. Penguin, Harmondsworth. 1966.[9]
• Nelson Mandela: The man and the movement. W.W. Norton & Co. 1986. ISBN 978-0393022964.[19]
• A Far Cry: The Making of a South African. Viking, London. 1989.[9]
• Athol Fugard and Barney Simon: bare stage, a few props, great theatre. Ravan Press, Randburg, South Africa. 1997.[12]

• List of people subject to banning orders under apartheid
• The papers of Mary Benson are held by SOAS Archives