Date: 12 December, 1919

Benjamin Magson Kies was born to Benjamin and Ethel Kies on 12 December 1919. At the age of twelve, Kies and his brother were excluded from participating in the Woodstock Anglican Church choir because they were not light-skinned enough. This experience had a significant impact of Kies' childhood and shaped his interest and involvement in political activism.

Kies completed a Bachelor's and Master's degree at the University of Cape Town and taught at the same high school in District Six where he had been a student. In 1937, he joined the New Era Fellowship, a leftist debating society. Kies was strongly opposed to colonialism and white supremacy and advocated this in his anti-Coloured Affairs Department (CAD) lectures.

In 1943, Kies become a founding member of the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM), which was the first non-racial political movement in South Africa. He was also a founding member of The Torch, a newspaper in which he propagated his ideas. Kies also incorporated his political activism into his teaching. This was frowned upon, and in 1956, he was dismissed from his teaching post at Trafalgar High School. He was also prohibited by the apartheid government from attending any gatherings in South Africa or South West Africa (now Namibia).

Kies went on to complete a degree in law and began to practice as an advocate in the rural areas around Cape Town. Despite his banning order in 1961, he continued to fight many political cases in court and became well-known in the Cape Town area. By 1967, Kies had been admitted to the Lesotho bar and in later years, to the Cape bar. He continued to practice law until his death in 1979. 

Kies was awarded with the Order of the Disa for his political and legal activism. Other officers of the order include Ray Alexander, Neville Alexander and HIV/AIDS activist Zackie Achmat.

References

• Premier of the Western Cape - Cape Gateway. [online] Available at: capegateway.gov.za [Accessed 7 December 2009]
• Sonderling, N.E. (ed.) New Dictionary of South African Biography, v. 2. Pretoria: Vista.