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Ruth First

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description Ruth First Overview

Ruth First was a prominent South African anti-apartheid activist, journalist, and academic who played a significant role in the liberation movement. As a member of the South African Communist Party, she utilized investigative journalism to expose the injustices of the apartheid state, resulting in her imprisonment and subsequent exile. In 1982, she was assassinated by a letter bomb dispatched by South African security forces while she was working as a research director at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique. Her life and work are studied by historians of African decolonization and political resistance.

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Why was Ruth First targeted by the apartheid government?

Ruth First was a journalist, communist, and anti-apartheid organizer whose investigations exposed South Africa's racial state and security apparatus. Her political work and connections to the African National Congress and South African Communist Party made her a target of surveillance, detention, and exile.

How was Ruth First assassinated in Mozambique?

She was killed in 1982 when she opened a letter bomb at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. The attack was carried out on behalf of South African security forces while First was working at the university's Centre of African Studies.

What was Ruth First's connection to Joe Slovo?

Ruth First was married to Joe Slovo, a leading figure in the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress. Their family lived under intense political pressure, and both First and Slovo spent years in exile.

What books or journalism is Ruth First known for?

Her works include 117 Days, an account of detention and solitary confinement under South Africa's 90-day law. She also wrote major studies of African politics, including The Barrel of a Gun and research on migrant labor in Mozambique.

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