Ebrahim Ebrahim

Last updated

Shannon Ebrahim (née Field)
​
​
(m. 2000)​
Ebrahim Ebrahim
Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim.jpg
Ebrahim in 2010
Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation
In office
11 May 2009 –25 May 2014
Servingwith Sue van der Merwe
Relations Gora Ebrahim (brother)
Children3
Alma mater University of South Africa (BA, BCom)
Occupation Anti-apartheid activist, lawmaker

Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim (1 July 1937 –6 December 2021) was a South African anti-apartheid activist of Indian origin who was a member of the African National Congress's armed wing uMkhonto we Sizwe . He was tried in the Pietermaritzburg sabotage trials of 1963 and was sentenced to a 15-year imprisonment at the Robben Island Maximum Security Prison.

Contents

Popularly known as Ebie, he served as a lawmaker in the first democratically elected government of South Africa in 1994 and also served as the country's deputy minister for international relations between 2009 and 2014.

Early life

Ebrahim was born in Durban in 1937 to parents, Hafeeza and Mohammed Adam Modan, of Indian origin. His father was from Gujarat and traveled to South Africa in 1933, while his mother was born in South Africa. His father took the surname Ebrahim from the family with whom he had traveled to South Africa. [1] [2]

Ebrahim's schooling was taken care of by his grandmother after the authorities denied him primary school admission, stating that schools for Indian students were full and could not admit him. This continued for five years until he was ten. He then joined a government funded school The Hindu Tamil Institute. [1]

Career and activism

Ebrahim was exposed to speeches from the African National Congress (ANC) and Natal Indian Congress (NIC) leaders when he attended their rallies in Durban as a 13 year old. During this time he was introduced to activism that fought discrimination against Indians in the country. [1] He was an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi's passive resistance movement, and attended rallies where ANC leader Albert Luthuli spoke. [3]

Ebrahim joined the anti-apartheid movement by joining the NIC in 1952 during the Defiance campaign. [1] In the same year, he became a member of the ANC Youth League. As a member of the NIC he got to be a delegate to Congress of the People that adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955. [4] [5]

He went on to become a member of the ANC armed wing Umkhonto We Sizwe in 1961 and was a member of the organization that carried out sabotage across the country. [1] [6] He would later say that the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, where 69 protestors were shot dead by the Transvaal police, changed his mind about peaceful means of protest and passive resistance, leading him to join the armed wing of the ANC. [3]

He was arrested in 1963 under the Sabotage act. [4] [5] He was tried in the Pietermaritzburg Sabotage Trial that included 18 other activists and was sentenced to a 15-year imprisonment at the Robben Island Maximum Security Prison. His time at the prison coincided with the time that other prominent activists including Nelson Mandela were in the same prison. [4] During his time in prison, for a brief period he shared his cell with Jacob Zuma, who would later be the president of the country. [3]

Ebrahim would write in his memoir later of the physical abuse, torture, and suffering inflicted in the prison saying, "In prison we were assaulted, starved, under-clothed and exposed to bitter cold weather. We were sworn at and humiliated in the most degrading manner. We broke stones and ate a measly meal. For years we were made to stand stark naked for long periods of time in an open courtyard, sometimes in biting cold weather." Despite this, he used his time in the prison to obtain two university degrees, Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce, from the University of South Africa. [3] [5]

Ebrahim was released from prison in 1979, with the condition that he not participate in any political activities, [1] and followed the ANC's order to go into exile the following year. [5] However, he was arrested again in 1989 for planting landmines in white-owned farms in Swaziland (now Eswatini) in 1986, along with two others. He was kidnapped from Swaziland by South African apartheid agents and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment, again in Robben Island. [4] [7] [8] Ebrahim was released in 1991; the kidnapping was ruled illegal since it had taken place outside South African jurisdiction. [1]

Ebrahim in Australia (2013) Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa and Fadhl Al-Maghafi, Minister Plenipotentiary, Yemen with a joey from Caversham Wildlife Park.jpg
Ebrahim in Australia (2013)

Ebrahim was part of the first democratically elected government of South Africa in 1994, [4] first as a member of the National Assembly, and then as an advisor, assisting with conflict mediation between the Palestinians and Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and in Nepal, Bolivia, Kosovo, and Burundi. [9] As a mediator in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict he advocated for a middle ground between the multiple Palestinian organizations. He met the Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat in 2001 in the West Bank during this time. In 2002, he was part of a group of South Africans that called for a Palestinian boycott of Israel and called for sanctions against the Israeli state. [10] In 2010, he had called for an end to the "cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem" noting that the "Israel and Palestine conflict (was) primarily about freedom to live in dignity". [11]

He was appointed the deputy foreign minister in 2009 and served in the position for six years between 2009 and 2014. [12] He also served as the member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress for over 26 years between 1991 and 2017. [1] He represented the constituency of Chatsworth in KwaZulu-Natal. [13]

Personal life

Ebrahim, who was also known as Ebie, [1] met his future wife Shannon née Field, a United Nations official, in 1998. The couple married in 2000 and went on to have a son and a daughter. He also had another daughter from his earlier relationship with an American academic Julia Wells. [lower-alpha 1] [14] [15]

Ebrahim was a fan of Indian film music, listening to singers including Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, and Geeta Dutt. It is noted that when he was underground on radio duty scanning radio stations, including Radio Moscow, Voice of America, South African Broadcasting Corporation, and the BBC, he would find himself tuning to All India Radio listening to Indian film music. [14] When incarcerated prisoners in Robben island were allowed to choose music for broadcast, he would select Bollywood music to confuse the prison warders. [14] He was also a fan of Soviet realist writer Nikolai Ostrovsky's works. [14]

Ebrahim died on 6 December 2021 at home in Johannesburg. He was aged 84. [4] He was provided a state funeral by the Gauteng province at the Westpark Cemetery. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Sisulu</span> South African anti-apartheid activist (1912–2003)

Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Between terms as ANC Secretary-General (1949–1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991–1994), he was incarcerated on Robben Island, where he served more than 25 years' imprisonment for his activism. He had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was also on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.

The Rivonia Trial is a trial that took place in apartheid-era South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, after a group of anti-apartheid activists were arrested on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. The farm had been the secret location for meetings of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the newly-formed armed wing of the African National Congress. The trial took place at the Palace of Justice, Pretoria, and led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Denis Goldberg, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni. Many were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life.

Raymond Mphakamisi Mhlaba was an anti-apartheid activist, Communist and leader of the African National Congress (ANC) also as well the first premier of the Eastern Cape. Mhlaba spent 25 years of his life in prison. Well known for being sentenced, along with Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu and others in the Rivonia Trial, he was an active member of the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) all his adult life. His kindly manner brought him the nickname "Oom Ray".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Suzman</span> South African anti-apartheid activist and Member of the House of Assembly

Helen Suzman, OMSG, DBE was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician. She represented a series of liberal and centre-left opposition parties during her 36-year tenure in the whites-only, National Party-controlled House of Assembly of South Africa at the height of apartheid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Sobukwe</span> Founding president of the Pan Africanist Congress (1924–1978)

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and founding member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), serving as the first president of the organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmed Kathrada</span> South African politician (1929–2017)

Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada, sometimes known by the nickname "Kathy", was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist.

Events from the year 1962 in South Africa. This year is notable for its internal and international resistance campaigns against the country's Apartheid legislation. Umkhonto we Sizwe, the militant wing of the African National Congress, made its first sabotage attacks in 1961, and Nelson Mandela traveled to Ethiopia to rally support for Umkhonto and justify the attacks. Nelson Mandela was sentenced to jail for 5 years upon returning to South Africa for illegally leaving the country. The international sporting community also showed its displeasure with the government's laws. FIFA suspended South Africa in 1962 for fielding an exclusively-white South African national football team, forcing South African football authorities to add black players to the team. The government, in turn strengthened methods of enforcing Apartheid, and the Robben Island prison was made a political prison in 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronnie Kasrils</span> South African politician

Ronald Kasrils is a South African politician, Marxist revolutionary, guerrilla and military commander. He was Minister for Intelligence Services from 27 April 2004 to 25 September 2008. He was a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1987 to 2007 as well as a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) from December 1986 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mac Maharaj</span> South African politician

Sathyandranath Ragunanan "Mac" Maharaj is a retired South African politician, businessman, and former anti-apartheid activist. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), he was the first post-apartheid Minister of Transport from 1994 to 1999. He was later the official spokesperson to the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma.

The Little Rivonia Trial was a South African apartheid-era court case in which several members of the armed resistance organization Umkhonto we Sizwe faced charges of sabotage. The accused were: Laloo Chiba, Dave Kitson, Mac Maharaj, John Matthews and Wilton Mkwayi. A confederate of theirs, Lionel Gay turned state witness, and in return, the prosecution dropped the charges against him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internal resistance to apartheid</span> 1950–1994 social movement in South Africa

Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and took forms ranging from social movements and passive resistance to guerrilla warfare. Mass action against the ruling National Party (NP) government, coupled with South Africa's growing international isolation and economic sanctions, were instrumental in leading to negotiations to end apartheid, which began formally in 1990 and ended with South Africa's first multiracial elections under a universal franchise in 1994.

Billy Nair was a South African politician, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa, an anti-apartheid activist and a political prisoner in Robben Island.

Amina Cachalia, OLB was a South African anti-Apartheid activist, women's rights activist, and politician. She was a longtime friend and ally of former President Nelson Mandela. Her late husband was political activist Yusuf Cachalia.

Ismail Ahmed Cachalia (1908-2003), popularly known as Moulvi, was a South African political activist and a leader of Transvaal Indian Congress and the African National Congress. He was one of the leaders of the Indian Passive Resistance Campaign of 1946 and the Defiance Campaign in 1952. The Government of India awarded the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1977.

Indres Elatchininathan Naidoo was a South African anti-apartheid activist. An early member of the people's liberation army, Umkhonto we Sizwe, Naidoo served 10 years in prison on Robben Island for sabotage between 1963 and 1973. After his release from prison, Naidoo played a leading role in the revival of the struggle in the 1970s until he was obliged to go into exile in 1977. He served the African National Congress (ANC) in Mozambique and in the German Democratic Republic. The ANC was unbanned in 1990, and Naidoo returned to South Africa the following year. When the ANC won the 1994 general election, Naidoo was appointed to the Senate and served in Parliament until 1999. In 2014, Naidoo was awarded the Order of Mendi for Bravery in Silver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robben Island (prison)</span>

Robben Island Prison is an inactive prison on Robben Island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometers (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. Since then, three former inmates of the prison have gone on to become President of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priscilla Jana</span> South African human rights lawyer (1943–2020)

Devikarani Priscilla Sewpal Jana was a South African human rights lawyer, politician and diplomat of Indian descent. As a member of the African National Congress (ANC) during the anti-apartheid movement, she participated in both legal activism as well as in the underground movement to end apartheid. She represented many significant figures in the movement, including South African president Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Steve Biko, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Jana was one of the very few South Africans who had access to political prisoners, including Mandela, in the maximum security Robben Island prison, and served as an emissary for coded messages between the political prisoners and the ANC leadership.

Sonny Venkatrathnam was a South African anti-apartheid activist and human rights activist who was imprisoned in the Robben Island Maximum Security Prison along with other anti-apartheid activists including Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, and Mac Maharaj. He was most famously known for smuggling an edition of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare into the prison. The book was shared with many of the high-profile prisoners in the prison and was called the Robben Island Bible.

Mahwidi John "Mokgomana" Phala was a South African politician and former anti-apartheid activist from Limpopo. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Limpopo Provincial Legislature from 1994 to 1999 and in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2009.

Muzivukile Curnick Ndlovu, also spelled Muzuvukile, was a South African politician, anti-apartheid activist, and trade unionist. A veteran of the African National Congress, he represented the party in the National Assembly during the first democratic Parliament from 1994 to 1999. He was also a former national chairperson of the United Democratic Front, a former secretary of the Railway and Harbour Workers' Union, and a former regional commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in Natal Province.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Explained: Who was Ebrahim Ebrahim, the Indian-origin anti-apartheid veteran?". The Indian Express. 7 December 2021. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  2. ↑ Ebrahim, Shannon. Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim : a gentle revolutionary. OCLC   1061275307. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "S.African anti-apartheid veteran Ebrahim dies aged 84". gulfnews.com. 7 December 2021. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "South African anti-apartheid veteran Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim dies at 84". South China Morning Post. 6 December 2021. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim". People's Assembly. Archived from the original on 10 July 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  6. ↑ Kasrils, Ronnie (8 December 2021). "Remembering Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim". Tribune. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  7. ↑ "S. African anti-apartheid veteran Ebrahim dies aged 84". France 24. 6 December 2021. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  8. ↑ Battersby, John D.; Times, Special To the New York (17 January 1989). "Afrikaner Paper Urges Talks With Mandela". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  9. ↑ "South African Anti-Apartheid Veteran Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim Dies At 84". NDTV.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  10. ↑ "Call for South Africa to cut ties with Israel". www.iol.co.za. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  11. ↑ AFP and TOI staff. "South African anti-apartheid, Palestinian rights advocate Ebrahim dies at 84". www.timesofisrael.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  12. ↑ Mahlati, Zintle; Morais, Sheldon. "Former deputy minister Ebrahim Ebrahim dies aged 84". News24. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  13. ↑ Kianja. "Ebrahim Ebrahim – Farewell to a Gentle Revolutionary". www.thediplomaticsociety.co.za. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Ebrahim Ebrahim obituary: A life that leaves behind a substantial legacy of kindness and compassion". www.iol.co.za. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  15. ↑ "Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim | South African History Online". www.sahistory.org.za. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  16. ↑ "WATCH: Gauteng Premier David Makhura pays tribute to Struggle stalwart Ebrahim Ebrahim". www.iol.co.za. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.

Notes

  1. ↑ Some sources note the spelling of Wells's first name as Julie

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.