Ruth first room

Ruth First room

In the Cobbenhagen Buidling room C 186 is mentioned after Ruth First (1925-1982). She was a South-African academic, editor and activist who played an important role in the struggle against Apartheid. Tilburg University took part in the boycott of South Africa, which lasted until 1989 and for example refused to cooperate with Olivetti – delivering the computers in those days – when became clear they had commercial interests in South Africa.

At the other hand young academics from South Africa where granted to study at Tilburg University and the naming of the Ruth First room was a more symbolic way to underline Tilburg University’s commitment with the new South Africa, raising in the late eighties.

Background

Ruth First's was the daughter of Jewish parents who immigrated to Johannesburg from Latvia in 1906 and became founding members of the Communist Party of South Africa. Ruth First too joined this party which was allied with the African National Congress in its struggle from the fifties on to overthrow the South African government. First became the first person in her family to attend university. She received her Bachelor's degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1946. 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 and got to know, among other fellow students.

Newspaper

After graduating, Ruth First worked as a research assistant for the Social Welfare Division of the Johannesburg City Council. In 1946, her position in the Communist Party was boosted significantly after a series of mine strikes during which leading members of the Party were arrested. First then became the editor-in-chief of the radical newspaper The Guardian, which was subsequently banned by the state. After the state of emergency that followed the Sharpesville massacre in 1960 she was listed and banned. She could not attend meetings or publish, and she could not be quoted. In 1963, during another government crackdown, she was imprisoned and held in isolation without charge for 117 days under the Ninety-Day Detention Law. She was the first white woman to be detained under this law.

Assasinated

In March 1964 First went into exile in London, where she became active in the British Anti-Apartheid Movement. She was a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester in 1972, and between 1973 and 1978 she lectured in development studies at the University of Durham.. In November 1978, First took up the post of director of research at the Centre of African Studies in Maputo, Mozambique. She died in 1982, when she opened a parcel bomb that had been sent to the university, by the South African secret police.