Slovo, Joe

▪ 1996

      (YOSSEL MASHEL SLOVO), Lithuanian-born South African lawyer and political activist (b. May 23, 1926, Obelai, Lithuania—d. Jan. 6, 1995, Johannesburg, South Africa), as spokesman, chairman (1984-87 and 1991-95), and general secretary (1987-91) of the South African Communist Party (SACP), was the chief white leader in the struggle against apartheid for more than 40 years. He was also the first white member (1985) of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC). Slovo's family immigrated to South Africa in 1935. He left school at age 13 and joined the SACP three years later, in part because it was the nation's only nonracial political organization. After completing his military service, he studied law at the University of Witwatersrand, where he became friends with Nelson Mandela. The SACP was outlawed in 1950, and Slovo was banned from political activity in 1954. He continued to provide legal counsel for black dissidents, helped to draft (1955) the ANC's Freedom Charter, and worked to form (1961) the group's military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"). Slovo was out of the country when the ANC leadership was arrested in 1963. For 27 years he campaigned to solicit money and raise international awareness from bases in London, Zambia, and Mozambique. The activities of Slovo's first wife, Ruth First, who maintained the struggle in South Africa until she joined him in exile, was the basis for the 1987 film A World Apart. He returned to Johannesburg when Mandela was released from prison in 1990. Slovo was named minister of housing in the first multiracial government in 1994.

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