Biographical Index

42 historical figures

Adam Kok III c. 1811–1875 Captain of the Griqua people
Adam Kok III was the leader of the Philippolis Griqua community, which he led on an extraordinary 1861 migration (their own 'Great Trek') over the Drakensberg mountains to establish Griqualand East w…
Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner 1854–1925 British High Commissioner for Southern Africa
Milner served as British High Commissioner during the most critical period of the Anglo-Boer War (1897–1905). His aggressive ultimatum policy in 1899 was a principal cause of the war; his post-war re…
Autshumao (Harry the Strandloper) c. 1610–1663 Khoikhoi leader and interpreter
The most significant Khoikhoi leader of the early colonial Cape, Autshumao served as interpreter between Dutch settlers and Khoikhoi communities, then led the first Khoikhoi resistance against the VO…
Bambatha kaMancinza c. 1866–1906 Chief and resistance figure
Associated with armed resistance to colonial taxation in 1906; accounts require careful source comparison.
Cecil John Rhodes 1853–1902 Mining magnate and imperialist
Rhodes made his fortune in the Kimberley diamond fields and built the De Beers monopoly before entering Cape politics. As Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (1890–1896), he pursued an aggressive polic…
Cetshwayo kaMpande c. 1826–1884 King
King during the British invasion of 1879 and central to debates about sovereignty and diplomacy.
Christiaan de Wet 1854–1922 Boer guerrilla commander
De Wet was the most effective Boer guerrilla leader of the Anglo-Boer War, repeatedly evading British forces and prolonging the guerrilla phase of the war for two years after the fall of Pretoria. Hi…
David Livingstone 1813–1873 Missionary and explorer
Livingstone spent sixteen years in southern Africa before embarking on the transcontinental journeys that made him the most celebrated explorer of the Victorian era. His 'Missionary Travels and Resea…
Dingane kaSenzangakhona c. 1795–1840 King
Succeeded Shaka and ruled during internal tension, diplomacy and conflict with migrating settler groups.
Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo c. 1868–1913 Royal and political figure
His life reflects partition, civil conflict, prosecution and the erosion of Zulu political independence.
Doman d. 1663 Khoikhoi military leader
Doman was a Khoikhoi man who served the Dutch East India Company as a soldier and interpreter, then led the first organised military resistance against VOC colonisation in the First Khoikhoi–Dutch Wa…
Emily Hobhouse 1860–1926 Humanitarian and anti-war activist
Emily Hobhouse travelled to South Africa in 1900 to report on conditions in the British concentration camps where Boer civilians had been interned. Her report to the South African Women and Children …
Eugène Casalis 1812–1891 French missionary and scholar
Casalis arrived in Basutoland in 1833 as one of the first Paris Evangelical missionaries and spent twenty-three years as the personal missionary and political advisor to King Moshoeshoe I. His 'Basut…
Harriette Colenso 1847–1932 Zulu rights advocate
Harriette Colenso, daughter of Bishop John William Colenso, devoted her life to defending Zulu political rights. She campaigned vigorously against the annexation of Zululand, the trial and imprisonme…
Hintsa kaKhawuta c. 1790–1835 Paramount chief of the Xhosa
Hintsa was the paramount chief (inkosi enkulu) of the Gcaleka Xhosa and the highest-ranking leader of the Xhosa nation at the time of his death. He was killed by British forces during the Sixth Front…
Jan van Riebeeck 1619–1677 Commander of the first Dutch settlement at the Cape
Jan van Riebeeck established the Dutch East India Company's refreshment station at Table Bay in April 1652 — the founding moment of permanent European settlement in South Africa. His journals record …
John Langalibalele Dube 1871–1946 Educator, writer and founding president of the ANC
Dube founded the Ohlange Institute in Natal (1901) — the first institution of African higher education in Natal — and the Zulu newspaper Ilanga lase Natal (1903). In 1912 he became the first presiden…
John Philip 1775–1851 Missionary and indigenous rights advocate
Philip served as superintendent of the London Missionary Society in South Africa from 1819 to 1849. His 'Researches in South Africa' (1828) documented the conditions of Khoikhoi and frontier communit…
John Tengo Jabavu 1859–1921 Newspaper editor and African political leader
Jabavu founded Imvo Zabantsundu ('Native Opinion') in 1884 — the first Xhosa-language newspaper — and used it for thirty-seven years to advocate for African rights, the Cape native franchise, and Afr…
John William Colenso 1814–1883 Missionary, linguist and political critic
Produced isiZulu language works and criticised British policy while remaining a colonial-era intermediary.
Krotoa (Eva) c. 1643–1674 Khoikhoi interpreter and intermediary
Krotoa was a young Khoikhoi woman who lived in Jan van Riebeeck's household from around 1652, became the primary interpreter between the Dutch East India Company and the Khoikhoi, and was baptised as…
Louis Botha 1862–1919 Boer general and first Prime Minister of South Africa
Botha commanded the Boer forces at the Battle of Spioenkop and became the commanding general of the Transvaal forces in 1900. After the war he chose reconciliation over continued resistance and becam…
Lucy Catherine Lloyd 1834–1914 Collector of San oral literature
Lucy Lloyd collaborated with her brother-in-law Wilhelm Bleek in recording /Xam San oral literature and continued the work alone for a decade after his death in 1875, eventually recording over 11,000…
Makana (Nxele) c. 1780–1820 Xhosa prophet-warrior
Makana was a Xhosa warrior and prophet who led the largest Xhosa attack on a British colonial settlement — the assault on Grahamstown in 1819, with a force estimated at 6,000–10,000 men. Captured and…
Mkabayi kaJama c. 1750–1843 Senior royal woman
Remembered for influence across generations of dynastic politics and royal succession.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 1869–1948 Lawyer, activist and pioneer of nonviolent resistance
Gandhi arrived in South Africa in 1893 as a young barrister and spent twenty-one years there, developing the philosophy of Satyagraha (nonviolent resistance) in response to the discriminatory laws fa…
Moshoeshoe I c. 1786–1870 Founder and king of the Sotho nation
Moshoeshoe I is widely regarded as the greatest political genius in nineteenth-century southern African history. From the fortress of Thaba Bosiu, he built the Sotho nation (modern Lesotho) by gather…
Mpande kaSenzangakhona c. 1798–1872 King
His long reign followed the defeat of Dingane and a decisive alliance with the Voortrekkers.
Mzilikazi kaMashobane c. 1790–1868 Founder and king of the Ndebele (Matabele) kingdom
Mzilikazi was a military commander under Shaka who broke away from the Zulu kingdom around 1823, leading his followers northward in a series of devastating raids that contributed to the Mfecane. He f…
Nandi kaZwide (Mother of Shaka) c. 1764–1827 Queen mother of the Zulu kingdom
Nandi was the mother of Shaka kaSenzangakhona and is remembered as a formidable figure in the founding history of the Zulu kingdom. Her difficult position as an outsider woman in Zulu royal society s…
Nongqawuse c. 1841–c. 1898 Xhosa prophetess
At around fifteen years old, Nongqawuse received visions telling her that if the Xhosa killed their cattle and destroyed their grain stores, the ancestors would rise and drive the British into the se…
Ntsikana kaBhotomane c. 1780–1820 Xhosa prophet and religious leader
Ntsikana was a Xhosa man who developed an independent African Christian theology — without European missionary instruction — composing the first hymn in an African language and calling his followers …
Olive Schreiner 1855–1920 Novelist, feminist and anti-war activist
Olive Schreiner grew up on mission stations in the eastern Cape and drew on this experience in her novel 'The Story of an African Farm' (1883) — the first great South African novel and one of the fir…
Paul Kruger 1825–1904 President of the South African Republic (Transvaal)
Kruger participated in the Great Trek as a child and spent his entire life in the Transvaal, serving as president from 1883 to 1900. His resistance to British pressure for political rights for the Ui…
Piet Retief 1780–1838 Voortrekker leader
Piet Retief was the most prominent leader of the Great Trek and the author of the Voortrekker Manifesto setting out the reasons for the exodus from the Cape Colony. He led the first large Voortrekker…
Robert Moffat 1795–1883 Missionary and Bible translator
Robert Moffat spent fifty years at the London Missionary Society station at Kuruman in the northern Cape, translating the Bible into Tswana and establishing the most influential missionary base in so…
Sarili kaSarhili c. 1809–1892 Paramount chief of the Xhosa
Sarili (sometimes spelled Sarhili) was the Xhosa paramount chief who ruled during the most devastating decades of Xhosa history — the Cattle Killing catastrophe of 1856–57 and the subsequent loss of …
Sechele I c. 1810–1892 Chief of the Bakwena (Tswana)
Sechele was the chief of the Bakwena Tswana people and the only person David Livingstone ever baptised. After Livingstone's departure he became a self-taught evangelist, preaching Christianity among …
Shaka kaSenzangakhona c. 1787–1828 King
Associated with the consolidation and expansion of the Zulu kingdom; his biography is shaped heavily by later testimony and reinterpretation.
Simon van der Stel 1639–1712 Governor of the Cape Colony
Simon van der Stel served as Governor of the Cape Colony from 1679 to 1699 and oversaw its expansion beyond the Cape Peninsula for the first time. He founded Stellenbosch (1679), established the firs…
Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje 1876–1932 Writer, translator and ANC founder
Sol Plaatje was the first secretary-general of the South African Native National Congress, a founding figure of African nationalism, and one of the most gifted writers in South African history. His '…
Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek 1827–1875 Philologist and collector of San oral literature
Bleek was a German-born linguist who spent his career in Cape Town studying Khoikhoi and San languages. From 1870, working with his sister-in-law Lucy Lloyd, he spent years recording the oral literat…