Heroes and Heroines

Sir Benjamin D’Urban (February 16, 1777-May 25, 1849), soldier and administrator in South Africa and other parts of the British Empire, was born in Halesworth,...

Ras Gugsa Wale (April 1877-March 31, 1930) was a provincial governor, a military leader, and one of the most enlightened persons among the Ethiopian nobility...

Dalindyebo (1865-1920) was a modernist nkosi (traditional ruler) of the Abathembu people in the Transkei region of Eastern Cape Province from 1885 to 1920. An...

John Dunn (1833-1895), an English trader from Natal, settled in Zululand, and was made a Zulu chief by Cetshwayo in 1856. Later, when the British invaded...

Queen Gudit, who flourished in the 10th century, and who was also known as Yodit, Judith, and Esato (“The Fire”), was a non-Christian rebel leader...

John Francis Cradock (August 12, 1762-July 6, 1839) was governor of the Cape Colony from 1811 to 1814. As governor he ordered the military against...

John William Colenso (January 24, 1814-June 20, 1883), was the Anglican archbishop of Natal from 1853 onwards, during the age of British imperial expansion. He...

Patrick Baker Duncan (June 1918 – June 4, 1967), born into the South African white liberal tradition, was unique in terms of his close association...

John Langalibalele Dube (February 22, 1871-February 11, 1949), was the first president general of what was to become the African National Congress (ANC). He was...

I.W.W. Citashe (circa 1845-circa 1930) was a Xhosa poet who wrote from around 1875 until the early 1900s. He exhorted Africans to use education, rather...