Ruth First

Radical opponent of apartheid, as activist, journalist, writer, and academic, born in Johannesburg, NE South Africa. She joined the Communist Party as a student, and worked for various left-wing newspapers and magazines (1946–60). In 1949 she married Joe Slovo; both were arrested and charged with treason in 1956. In 1964 she left South Africa, and subsequently taught at universities in England and Mozambique. In 1982 she was assassinated by a parcel bomb in her office at Maputo, Mozambique.

Ruth First (May 4, 1925 – August 17, 1982) was a Jewish South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar born in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ruth First was a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP), of which her parents were founder members, and which was allied with the African National Congress in the struggle to overthrow the racist government of her country, which treated black and mixed-race people as second-class citizens.

She was involved in the founding of the Federation of Progressive Students while at the University of the Witwatersrand where she studied for her Bachelor's degree in Social studies. Nelson Mandela, future President of South Africa and Eduardo Mondlane the first leader of the Mozambique freedom movement FRELIMO were among her fellow students.

In 1963 during the government's crackdown she was interned for 117 days, and upon being freed she and her husband went into exile in London, where she was active in the Anti-Apartheid Movement. She was assassinated by the South African Bureau Of State Security (BOSS), from whom she received a parcel bomb on August 17, 1982 sent to her university.

The 1988 movie A World Apart, from a screenplay by her daughter Shawn Slovo and directed by Chris Menges, is Ruth First's film biography.