Helen Joseph

A Review by Moyin Oloruntoba

Helen Joseph is a South African who was born in Britain in 1905. After studying English at London University she became a teacher and taught at Mahbubia School in India.

Helen later almost married Hugh Powell, who was a cigarette salesman, but a horse riding accident changed everything. She galloped into an ox-cart and she went crashing to the ground.

She was bleeding and was unconscious. Because of her accident she couldn’t continue her work as a teacher in India because it was too tough and too much for her body. So she moved to South Africa and planned to marry Hugh Powell but she never married him because she later married a dentist by the name of Billie Joseph but later got divorced.

In 1939, Helen joined the air force because of the Second World War and was sent to Pretoria to teach women about the South African government system.       

She then realized that there was an unfair system in South Africa, which was that she, could vote and blacks could not.

The war ended in 1945 and Helen took a course in Social Work at Wits University. She then moved to the mother city Cape town where she became a social worker in a colored township.

In 1951 she got a job as a director of Government Workers’ Union (GWU) medical aid society in Johannesburg. Hundreds of whites, colored women and black men worked in factories making shirts, trousers and jackets. They worked for long hours with very little wages. The GWU fought for better conditions for the workers.

Helen was surprised at the unity of the workers from different races and backgrounds and how they stood together for better working conditions. Because of this the desire to help these people grew more.

In 1948 the National Party came to power and made laws to keep people from different races apart. This was called apartheid. Blacks, whites, coloreds and Indians had separate buses, shops entrances and even benches. The whites had the best of everything and were the only ones allowed to vote.

In 1952 the African National Congress (ANC) began to fight against apartheid. Thousands of blacks, Indians and coloreds used white’s only entrances and sat in white only waiting rooms. This campaign lasted 6 months and eight thousand Protesters were arrested.

The ANC then invited whites who were against apartheid to join them and they formed the Congress of Democrats (COD) Helen admired the ANC and joined the COD.

Organizations like the South African Indians congress (SAIC), the Colored People’s Congress (CPC) and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) joined the ANC and altogether they called themselves the Congress Alliance. Helen’s contribution was to help form a women’s organization    made up of women from >>>

long friend. She was called Lilian Ngoyi and she was vice president.

One of the most hated law that was apart of apartheid was the pass law. This law forced men to carry pass books. This book was like a passport, which allowed men to go to white places only to work for them. Then in 1956 the government wanted to make a law that would force black women to carry pass books. The FEDSAW decided to fight. 0n the 9 of August Helen and Lilian, her friend, led 2000 women of different races to the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

They carried a petition to the prime minister who was JG Strijdom demanding him to drop the law. Strijdom didn’t see or speak to the women. Today we celebrate women’s day on the 9 of August to celebrate the power and courage of those women.

In 1956 the police arrested 156 people from the Congress Alliance- including Helen, Lilian and Nelson Mandela. They were charged with treason. If they were found guilty they would have been sentence to death. In 1961 the trial ended and the 156 people were found not guilty and were set free.

Helen was banned for five years. She could not attend political meetings or leave Pretoria. In 1960 the government banned the ANC and other Organizations that were fighting apartheid making them illegal. After five years Helen's ban was over. But by then the government had banished people that were against apartheid to rural areas were there were no jobs. Many of these people starved to death. Helen visited them and wrote to the newspapers about their sufferings. She also wrote a book about it. When people from all over the world read this book they were shocked and the government was scared so they banned her for another five years.

Helen was the first person in 1962 to be placed under house arrest. This meant that she was a prisoner in her own home. She could not leave her house during hours of darkness and on the weekends. She could not attend any gatherings with her friends and she had to report to the police station during midday. But during Helens house arrest members of the Alliance were charged with trying to overthrow the government. Helen could not help them because of her arrest. Mandela was sentenced to Jail for Life. Helen did not see Mandela for another 27 years.

Helen’s house arrest ended in 1971, she traveled all over the country giving speeches to universities. Many of them only then heard of the true fight against apartheid.

In 1980 Helen was government banned again but for two years this time. Friends tried to convince her that see is getting too old and should stop her political work because she was 75 and was not very well but she didn’t let that stand in here way. In this same year her life long friend Lilian Ngoyi died.      

Even though I am not a South African I still have respect for the freedom fighters of this nation and as freedom day is coming up on Wednesday think about South African’s freedom fighters.     

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