Ruth First

Heloise Ruth First OLG (4 May 1925 – 17 August 1982) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar. She was assassinated in Mozambique, where she was working in exile, by a parcel bomb built by South African police.

Family and education Ruth First was born 4 May 1925 in Johannesburg to her Jewish parents, Julius First and Matilda Leveta. Julius emigrated to South Africa from Latvia when he was 10 years old, and Matilda emigrated from Lithuania when she was four years old. They were both anti-apartheid activists and became founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the forerunner of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Ruth First was brought up in Kensington where she and her brother, Ronald First, were raised in a highly political household. At age 14, Ruth was a member of the Young Left Wing Book Club. Like her parents, she joined the Communist Party, which was allied with the African National Congress in its struggle to overthrow the apartheid government of South Africa.

As a teenager, First attended Jeppe High School for Girls and then became the first person in her family to attend university. She received her bachelor's degree in Social Science from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1946, receiving firsts in anthropology, economic history, sociology, and native administration. While she was at university, she found that "on a South African campus, the student issues that matter are national issues". She was involved in the founding of the Federation of Progressive Students, also known as the Progressive Students League,

In 1949, she married Joe Slovo, a South African anti-apartheid activist and Communist, with whom she had three daughters, Shawn, Gillian and Robyn. Together, Slovo and First became a leading force in the 1950s protest era in which the government outlawed any movements that opposed their policies. In 1955, she assumed the position of editor of a radical political journal called Fighting Talk. First and Slovo were also members of the African National Congress, in addition to the Communist Party. She also played an active role during the extensive riots of the 1950s.

Following four years of harassment by the state, First alongside the 155 other activists were all acquitted of their charges. After the state of emergency that followed the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, she was listed and banned. She could not attend meetings or publish, and she could not be quoted. Her husband was arrested, and she fled to Swaziland with their children in order to avoid arrest. During the second half of the state of emergency, she returned to Johannesburg with her children secretly and lived underground. Around this time she also helped arrange the first broadcasts of Radio Freedom in Johannesburg. After she was detained, her home was searched by police where they found a copy of “Fighting Talk,” owning which was punishable by a minimum of one year in prison. She was assassinated by the order of Craig Williamson, a major in the South African Police, on 17 August 1982, when she opened a parcel bomb that had been sent to the university. Bridget O'Laughlin, an anthropologist working with First, was in First's office when she was murdered, and testified to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Presidents and ambassadors from 34 different countries were at her funeral in Maputo on 24 August 1982.

Memoirs First's book, 117 Days, is her account of her arrest, imprisonment and interrogation by the South African Police Special Branch in 1963. It was first published in 1965. The memoir provides a detailed account of how she endured "isolation and sensory deprivation" while withstanding "pressure to provide information about her comrades to the Special Branch".

Films The film A World Apart (1988), which has a screenplay by her daughter Shawn Slovo and was directed by Chris Menges, is a biographical story about a young white girl living in South Africa with anti-apartheid activist parents, although the family is called Roth in the film. Barbara Hershey plays the character based on Ruth First.

The 2006 film Catch a Fire about the activist Patrick Chamusso was written by Shawn Slovo, and in it First is portrayed by another daughter, Robyn Slovo, who was also one of the film's producers.

Patrol vessel

In 2005, the South African Department of Environmental Affairs launched an environmental patrol vessel named Ruth First.

In March 2011, the country of The Gambia issued a postage stamp in her honour, naming her as one of the Legendary Heroes of Africa.

Other recognitions Ruth Firststraat is a street in a residential area of the city of Heerlen in the Netherlands which is named after her.

Since 2000, the University of Witwatersrand has awarded students The Ruth First Fellowship. An award that allows Fellows to pursue an in-depth project of original research that influences thinking, discussion and debate in South Africa.

In 2024, at the South African Jewish Board of Deputies' 120th anniversary gala dinner, she was honoured among 100 remarkable Jewish South Africans who have contributed to South Africa. The ceremony included speeches from Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, and First was honoured with other anti-apartheid activists, Helen Suzman, Rusty Bernstein, Arthur Goldreich and Joe Slovo.

In May 2026, the African Estudies Center (CEA) of the Eduardo Mondlane´s University in Maputo (Mozambique) dedicated a room for the memorial of Ruth First. It consisted of transforming office number 62 at the CEA, where the South African activist worked as a research director for five years and was assassinated in the same space via a letter bomb.

Main published works

(with R. Segal),

(co-edited with J. Steele and C. Gurney),

(with Ann Scott),