Ruth First: A Powerful Biography And A Voice For The Oppressed

By Chris Kanyane

Ruth First was a South African iconoclast. Scholar, journalist, and revolutionary, she dedicated her life to dismantling the brutal system of apartheid. This captivating biography explores First's remarkable journey - from her intellectual awakening to her fearless activism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: South Africa National Library Online
• Release date: Apr 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223872771

Chris Kanyane

The author first met Barack Obama close and personal in the majestic Kenya; both chatted and enjoyed lunched together. He is a global researcher and member of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. He is also the president and cofounder of the global Moving Forward!

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Ruth First: A Powerful Biography And A Voice For The Oppressed

By

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Chris Kanyane

South Africa National Library Online

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Copyright © 2024 by Chris Kanyane

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

RUTH FIRST: A POWERFUL BIOGRAPHY AND A VOICE FOR THE OPPRESSED

What does the life of Ruth First teach us? It teaches us the path for inner peace and quietness. If you desire peace of mind set values of what life means to you and live those values totally. Get consumed by a powerful moral idea. If you are genuinely living what life means to you the consequence is peace of mind! Only the honest know peace; the insincere and the cowards do not live in peace.

Reality is love; to live in love is to work for the good of all human beings. Live in love for all human beings and know peace of mind and body.

Since the dawn of the 20th century up until now we saw a new breed of apostles of peace; the psychotherapists.

One of those psychotherapists was Victor Frankl.

Victor Frankl tells us that we are always searching for meaning in our lives and that if we do not find meaning we live nihilistic existence. A nihilistic existence is the concept where you fail to live a life beyond yourself. That is the reason most people are not happy despite living lives of super luxury and wealth that is unknown in history. Our world is a basket case of sadness and glum: stress and depression is our daily existence.

If you do not know where you want to go, you would go to nowhere. We have visionary leaders who set out the path for others to walk in. What is life without visions of where we want to go to?

Ruth First was known for her simplicity, her strength of character, her naturalness, her audacity for hope and comradely attitude; a person of profound ideas. It is not easy to find a person with all the virtues that were combined in Ruth. It is not easy for a person to develop a character like hers.

She was deeply woman – a fully grounded woman. As a young woman, she was very stylish, beautiful and full of life. As an adult she retained her beauty as she grappling with the most difficult very hard questions of the world. She lived a full life and a life of purpose.

A butterfly she was! She was strikingly beautiful and attractive. As she grew up some would have considered the world of show business as her destiny. And the manner in which she carried her school work with fortitude, some would have said she should spent her life life of academia. Definitely she could have excelled in the world of academia. She could have easily become one of the greatest leading dynamos of education.

Ruth First lived her life as a total person. Her life embodied every aspect of human existence. At the pinnacle of her life was a burning passion for bettering the world. She was a social worker, journalist, librarian, revolutionary leader, freedom fighter, a champion of workers, teacher/lecturer and a beautiful woman.

She had a feminine tough all the way through. She blended all her strength and upbringing to become who she was.

She had a vision of love. True Civilization is love. That kind of civilization requires people to sacrifice for the collective and not just live for the individual alone. Whereas we do not know what the ultimate reality is, reality lies in accepting that at the spiritual level we are joined to one another.

She was a philosopher too. She believed in a natural society that has diverse colours. A multi-coloured rose garden is more beautiful than a rose garden with only one colour. Nature is wise in making people come in different colours and shapes. Love is joining, connecting and fellowship. Racism and tribalism disconnects us to one another hence makes us feel unloved, lacking in peace and joy.

Born into privilege on a legendary scale, Ruth First sacrificed his worldly possessions in the fight to secure a safe space for the beleaguered African people (the