Apartheid in South Africa is a political system of segregation that perpetuated unequal relationships between Europeans and their descendants and local people of color. This system of segregation placed an inhumane burden on African, Indian, and Couloured people of South Africa. The government placed heavy restrictions intruding on every aspect of private life for these persecuted citizens. Specialized passes, restricted living areas, and daily police harassment were just the least of what an average black citizen faced.

Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin’s experiences in Nylstroom and Pretoria Central Prisons as a female political activist who was detained for her work in the underground ANC during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle reveal the excessively brutal and inhumane treatment of Africans by the South African Nationalist government.

Jean Clarice Middleton was born in Durban, South Africa on August 30, 1928. She first attended the Durban Girls’ College. She then went on to receive a Master of Arts degree from Natal University, which is now the University of KwaZulu-Natal. After earning her degree, she decided to become a teacher. She married Harold Strachan who was also an anti-apartheid activist.

Her collegue in the anti-apartheid struggle, Hilda Bernstein, describes Florence Matomela as ‘a woman who gave out warmth and life like the African sun, full of lively energy and songs and cheerfulness of her infinitely energy and splendid personality’ and ‘Her ebullient personality and supreme courage and loyalty come from her absolute confidence in the future.’[1] Like Bernstein and many other acti

Introduction

Florence Mkhize was an active member and leader in some of the most prominent organizations that worked to end apartheid in South Africa, including the Federation of South African Wome​n (FEDSAW), the African National Congres​s (ANC), the ​

Innate resilience in conjunction with unmatched passion forms a characteristic that proves to be unstoppable, yet the rarity of this combination stems from the rarity of its isolated parts. Censorship, imprisonment, and exile exist as forms of punishment due to their unique ability to prevent unfavorable actions, and if further defiance of these punishments were common, their widespread influence of world order would not exist at all. Thus, an individual who confronts this wall of punishment and continues to push its limits can be classified as inherently unusual.

After the South African general election in 1948, the National Party, an Afrikaner political party that supported increased racial segregation and apartheid legislation, took increasingly authoritarian measures to combat any forms of resistance against the government. Under apartheid legislation, the South African government greatly limited the ability for anti-apartheid organizations to perform strikes and campaigns.

While the South African press readily covered stories of those having committed acts of treason or communism during the apartheid era, little attention was paid to what transpired once the court cases concluded and the sentences were determined. In fact, from the onset of apartheid to the height of its violence, the conditions of prisons and the treatment of prisoners by the Prison Department was largely unknown to the public.

Alternating from prison to fort to prison to museum, the Old Fort in Johannesburg has served a variety of unique purposes since its creation in 1893.[1] In an ironic way, it echoed its inhabitants during apartheid. Just as they were dragged from their jobs, families, and lives, and pushed into the role of activists by the abhorrent policies of their government, the prison too evolved to accommodate these new political prisoners.