In memory of my mother, Rosabella Singer Klein, an accomplished woman

351 Pages·2016·7.18 MB·English

NEGOTIATING FEMININITY, ETHNICITY AND HISTORY:
REPRESENTATIONS OF RUTH FIRST
IN SOUTH AFRICAN STRUGGLE NARRATIVES
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Deborah Rochelle Klein
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Thesvis Presented for the Degree of
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DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in the Department of English Language and
Literature
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN
February 2006
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The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No
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quotation from it or information derived from it is to be

published without full acknowledgeement of the source.
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The thesis is to be used for private study or non-
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commercial research purposes only.

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Published by the Universit y of Cape Town (UCT) in terms
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of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author.
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In memory of my mother,
Rosabella Singer Klein, an accomplished woman
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Abstract
An exploration of South African historiography through the prism of representations of
activist writer Ruth First (1925-1982) forms the focus of this thesis. Ignored in South
African canonical histories during the apartheid era, Ruth First is frequently portrayed as
an icon of the struggle in current accounts about the past.
The dissertation is ordered by five central discussions: gender, political activism,
Jewishness, maternal behaviour and the role of the individual in the community. With
reference to her non-fiction writing, autobiographical accounts by her daughters and her
contemporaries, photographic exhibitions and transcriptions of amnesty hearings to the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (amongst other works), I trace Ruth First's
presentation of identity through communications of dress, posture and language. I
examine too the production of her image across time in South African culture.
Imprisoned under the infamous Ninety-Day law in 1963, Ruth First subsequently wrote a
memoir titled 117 Days: An Account of Confinement and Interrogation under South
African Ninety-Day Detention Law (1965), which became known as a classic of the
genre. Caught between her commitments to racial equality and a life of social privilege,
between the demands of motherhood and her sociological research work in Africa,
between performances of a white femininity and the suppressed ramifications of a
difficult ethnic past, Ruth First shuttles between unsatisfactory subject positions. I
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propose here that Ruth First strains against the representative mantle which she is made
to wear in post-apartheid tributes to the past, and which she herself sometimes donned as
a lifetime member of the South African Communist Party, and later the African National
Congress.
As the daughter of poor Yiddish-speaking Jews from Lithuania, I propose that Ruth First
is marked by a history of dislocation, immigration and revolutionary activity which she
refused to acknowledge. I undertake my own historiographical exercise through which I
re-situate Ruth First within an alternate heritage of Jewish activist women. An
understanding of the historiographical process as a series of continuous adjustments of
the past to politicized positions in the present underlies my examination.
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Contents
...
lll>stract .............................................................................. .
Ill
Table of Contents .................................................................. . v
..
Jlcknowledgements ..................................................................
VII
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List of Figures and Photographs ................................................ . Vlll
SECTION ONE
Introduction........................................................................... 1
Chapter One.......................................................................... 32
Ruth First: A World
Figures and Photographs... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
SECTION TWO
Chapter Two.......................................................................... 101
Dissonance and the Autobiographical Text
Chapter Three........................................................................ 130
Communication and Reflection in the Prison-House
SECTION THREE
Chapter Four......................................................................... 167
Unearthing Basement Histories: Confronting Formulations of
Feminine Achievement
Figures and Photographs........................................................................ 207
Chapter Five.......................................................................... 236
Accomplished Women: Activism, Domesticity and Motherhood
Figures and Photographs........................................................................ 279
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Contents
continued
<:o11clllsioll •••••••••••••••••••••••••.••••••••••••••••••••.•••.••••••••.•.•••.•••••••••• 287
Appendix ............................................................................... 299
Transcription of Ruth First's Speech on South African Women's Day,
9 August 1978
Bibliography .......................................................................... 308
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Acknowledgments
It is with great pleasure that I acknowledge my indebtedness to my spiritual teachers,
my family, my supervisor and other researchers and academics.
I am deeply grateful to my father, Hymie Ronnie Klein, for his unfailing support, both
financial and intellectual, and for showing by example the virtues of tolerance. I
would also like to thank Jane Klein for her unstinting encouragement, and for
transcribing an essential microfiche under onerous conditions with her sister Margery
in London.
The fiery discussions about both literary theory and practice which my sister Lisa and
I conducted over crackly cell phone lines proved to be invaluable, as did the love and
support of Julia and Jessica Klein.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to Dorothy Driver, whose excellent supervision and
persistent attention to detail elicited work which, at the time, I did not think possible.
Veronica Belling, librarian-in-charge of the Jewish Studies Library, provided superb
assistance above and beyond the call of duty. I am also thankful to Phyllis lowell,
who generously lent an out-of-print catalogue to a virtual stranger.
His Divine Grace Abhaya Caranaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada
inspired me to write by his marvellous example. His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami
insisted categorically that I apply myself to the dissertation with discipline and focus.
To both, I am beholden.
I am grateful to the University of Cape Town for financial assistance towards research
undertaken in my second year of study. I also wish to acknowledge financial
assistance granted by the Centre for Science Development (CSD) towards the
dissertation. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are my own and not
necessarily those of the CSD.
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List of Figures and Photographs
1 Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe... .................. ...... ..................... 95
The Fifties People of South Africa (1987: 226)
2 Cover of 117 Days (1988 edition)........................................ 96
3 Ntsiki Biko. .. . .. . .. .. . .. . . . . . .. . .. .. . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . ... . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 97
Women of South Africa: Their Fight for Freedom ( 110-111: 1993)
4 Joe Slovo and Ruth First leaving court during the Treason Trial 98
(Joe Slovo 1995: first insert, n. pag.)
5 Cover of Every Secret Thing.............................................. 99
6 'We Say Goodbye but We'll Be Back'.................................. 100
Cover page of the final edition of Spark (March 28, 1963: 1)
7 Ruth First (left) with Joe Slovo (centre) and Archbishop Ambrose
Reeves (right) during the Treason Trial................................. 209
(Shain et al. 2001: 128)
8 Ruth First outside the Old Synagogue during the Treason Trial 209
(Shain et al. 2001: 131)
9 Ruth First addressing a 'Free Mandela' rally in Trafalgar Square in
London, c. 1964. .. .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . .... 210
(Shain et al. 2001: inside back, top)
10 Ruth First's funeral in Maputo, 1982 . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .... 210
(Shain et al. 2001: 170)
11 Gathering of the Young Communist League in Johannesburg,
1940........................................................................... 211
(Shain et al. 2001: 45)
12 Albie Sachs and Ruth First with Spanish freedom fighter Lopez
Raimundo in Peking, 1954............. .. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . .... 211
(Advance 14 Oct. 1954)
13 Portrait of Chaya Slovo................................................... .. 212
(Joe Slovo 1995: n. pag.)
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List of Figures and Photographs continued
14 Gillian and Robyn Slovo with Julius First in London, March 1964 212
(Joe Slovo 1995: n. pag.)
15 Yusuf Dadoo and Joe Slovo protesting against the Rivonia Trial in
London, 1963............ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
(Joe Slovo 1995: n. pag.)
16 Labourers thrashing com on the Snipelisky's farm near Kinross,
c. 1930........................................................................ 214
(The Jews of South Africa: n. pag.)
17 Opening of the Kensington creche for so-called coloured children
in Cape Town, 1942...... ......... ... .. . . .. ... .......... .. ...... ... .. .. ..... 215
(The Jews of South Africa: n. pag.)
18 Miners and managers at the entrance to the Sheba gold mine in
Barberton in 1886... .. . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ... 216
(The Jews of South Africa: n. pag.).
19 Portrait of Benjamin Norden, founder of "the Tikvat Israel
congregation in Cape Town," in 1841... ... ...... ........ .... ....... ..... 217
(The Jews of South Africa: n. pag.)
20 United Democratic Front (UDF) rallies, mid-1980s.... ..... ...... ..... 218
(Shain et al. 2001: 88-89)
21 Activist Sheila Weinberg (centre) at a UDF fundraiser................ 219
(Shain et al. 2001: 45)
22 Procession in Cape Town, 1922........................................... 219
(The Jews of South Africa: n. pag.)
23 Midnight vigil at the Old Synagogue in Pretoria, 1948................ 220
(The Jews of South Africa: n. pag.)
24 Protest in support of Russian "Prisoners of Zion," 1979............ ... 220
(The Jews of South Africa: n. pag.)
25 Family portrait of Caroline Baumann and her daughters, c. 1860 221
(The Jews of South Africa: n. pag.)
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