Ruth First (1925–1982) was a South African journalist, scholar, anti-apartheid activist, and communist whose life and work embodied determined opposition to racial oppression. Assassinated by a letter bomb in exile, she remains a symbol of intellectual courage and commitment to justice in southern Africa.
Heloise Ruth First was born on 4 May 1925 in Johannesburg to Jewish immigrant parents from Eastern Europe. Her father, Julius First, had arrived from Latvia as a child; her mother, Matilda (Tilly) Levetan (or Leveta), came from Lithuania. Both were founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA, later the South African Communist Party or SACP) and raised their daughter in a household steeped in radical politics and antiracism. Julius worked as a furniture manufacturer. Ruth attended Jeppe High School for Girls before becoming the first in her family to enrol at university.
At the University of the Witwatersrand from 1942 to 1946, she earned a BA in Social Studies with first-class passes in sociology, anthropology, economic history, and native administration. Campus life radicalised her further. She helped found the Federation of Progressive Students (or Progressive Students’ League), a multiracial group opposing segregation. Fellow students and associates included future leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Ismail Meer, Yusuf Dadoo, and Joe Slovo. The 1946 African mineworkers’ strike proved decisive: First abandoned a brief job with the Johannesburg City Council’s social welfare division—finding its focus on white children irrelevant—and threw herself into supporting the strikers.
Journalism became her primary weapon. She joined the staff of the radical newspaper The Guardian (later banned and revived under successive titles including New Age), rising to Johannesburg editor. Her investigative reporting exposed the brutal realities of apartheid after the National Party’s 1948 election victory: farm labour scandals involving pass-law offenders treated as virtual slave labour, conditions in the mines and reserves, and the human cost of segregation. She also edited Fighting Talk, a journal linked to the Congress Alliance. First’s writing combined sharp analysis with mobilisation; she understood that factual exposure could fuel mass resistance.
In 1949 she married Joe Slovo, a Lithuanian-born lawyer, communist, and fellow activist who later became a key figure in Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s armed wing. Their Johannesburg home in Roosevelt Park served as a hub for multiracial political gatherings. They had three daughters: Shawn (born 1950), Gillian (1952), and Robyn. The couple’s activism brought constant police harassment. In 1950 they were among the first “named” under the Suppression of Communism Act, restricting their activities.
First helped found the South African Congress of Democrats (COD) in 1953, the white wing of the multiracial Congress Alliance that included the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Indian Congress, and others. She contributed to drafting the Freedom Charter, adopted at the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955, though a banning order prevented her from attending. In December 1956 she was among 156 activists—including Mandela, Slovo, Walter Sisulu, and others—arrested and charged with high treason. The marathon Treason Trial lasted until 1961, when all defendants were acquitted.
Repression intensified after the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 and the subsequent State of Emergency. First continued underground work with the banned SACP and ANC. In August 1963, following the Rivonia raid that captured much of the MK high command, she was arrested under the 90-day detention law while at the University of the Witwatersrand library. Held in solitary confinement for a total of 117 days (initially 90, then re-arrested for another period), she endured intense interrogation. At one point she attempted suicide by overdose; the experience later formed the basis of her powerful memoir 117 Days (1965). Released in late 1963, she left South Africa in March 1964 on an exit permit with her daughters, joining Slovo in exile in London. She remained a “listed” person, meaning her words could not be quoted inside South Africa.
Exile did not diminish her productivity. In Britain she became active in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, wrote and edited extensively, and travelled across Africa studying independence struggles and political change. She edited collections of writings by Nelson Mandela (No Easy Walk to Freedom), Govan Mbeki (The Peasants’ Revolt), and Oginga Odinga. Her own books included South West Africa (1963), a critical study of South African rule over what is now Namibia; Power in Africa (also known as The Barrel of a Gun, 1970), analysing military coups; Libya: The Elusive Revolution (1973/1974); and co-authored works on Western investment in apartheid and a biography of Olive Schreiner. From 1973 to 1978 she lectured in development studies and the sociology of underdevelopment at the University of Durham.
In 1977–1978 First moved to newly independent Mozambique as research director (and later professor) of the Centre for African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. There she directed collaborative fieldwork on migrant labour, producing Black Gold: The Mozambican Miner, Proletarian and Peasant (published posthumously in 1983). She trained former freedom fighters and supported the FRELIMO government’s efforts to build a socialist society while remaining closely tied to the ANC and SACP in exile. Her husband and other cadres operated from the region; the proximity to South Africa made her a high-value target for Pretoria’s security services.
On 17 August 1982, after a UNESCO conference at the Centre, First opened a parcel bomb in her office. The explosion killed her instantly at the age of 57. The bomb had been prepared by South African police agents; major Craig Williamson later admitted involvement, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission confirmed the apartheid state’s responsibility. An anthropologist colleague present at the time survived to testify. First’s funeral in Maputo drew international mourners; her mother and youngest daughter were among those who attended.
Ruth First’s legacy endures in multiple forms. Her books remain important sources on southern African politics, labour, and resistance. The film A World Apart (1988), scripted by her daughter Shawn Slovo, drew on the family’s experiences under apartheid. Gillian Slovo’s writing also explored their history. Memorials, educational trusts (including one linked to Durham University), and commemorations in South Africa keep her memory alive. Nelson Mandela later described her life and death as “a beacon to all who love liberty.” As a white South African who fully committed herself to the non-racial struggle, a rigorous intellectual who never separated analysis from action, and a mother who balanced (sometimes uneasily) family and politics, First exemplified the personal costs of principled opposition. Her assassination underscored the regime’s fear of ideas as much as of guns. More than four decades later, her insistence on linking rigorous research, investigative journalism, and organised resistance continues to resonate in discussions of inequality, authoritarianism, and solidarity across southern Africa and beyond.