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Joyce Nomafa Sikakane, later Sikakane-Rankin (born 1943), is a South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist. She was detained by the Apartheid South African government for 17 months for her anti-apartheid activism.

Early life and education
Sikakane was born in 1943 to Jonathan Sikakane and Amelia Nxumalo at the Bridgeman Memorial Maternity Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. She grew up in Soweto, the daughter of a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. She attended Holy Cross Primary School until the African National Congress (ANC) called for a boycott due to the Bantu Education Act and the school was closed. Her parents eventually separated and she started to attend the boarding school Inanda Seminary. She attended Orlando High School for a time after her mother gained custody but then returned to Inanda Seminary, from which she graduated in 1963. She did not want to enroll in any colleges in South Africa again due to the Bantu Education Act, instead she decided to become a journalist. She did later earn a Bachelor of Science Honors degree in the United Kingdom at Open University.

Career and activism
Sikakane began her career in 1960 at The World, a white run newspaper that catered to a black audience. In 1968, she left The World for The Rand Daily Mail, where she became the first black women to be hired by the newspaper. At the Rand, she started to focus her writing about the impact that apartheid had on the Africans of South Africa.

On the 12th of May in 1969, Sikakane was detained by police under the the Terrorism Act and taken to Pretoria Central Prison, where she was interrogated about the African National Congress (ANC). She was charged under the the Suppression of Communism Act and stood trial on the 1st of December in 1969 along with 21 other activists. The charges were dropped on the 16th of February in 1970 but Sikakane and the other activists were re-detained shortly afterwards. After around 17 months of detainment in total, she was released in late 1970. She eventually left South Africa in 1973 and continued to work for the African National Congress (ANC) while in exile.

Marriage
Around the same time she started at the Rand, Sikakane fell in love with a Scottish doctor, Ken Rankin (1939–2011), but as interracial marriages were illegal, they could not marry. After she left South Africa, Sikakane and Rankin married in 1974 and subsequently moved to Scotland.

Sikakane has four children :


 * Nkosinathi
 * Nomzamo
 * Samora
 * Vikela

Later life
In 1977, her autobiography A Window on Soweto was published in London by the International Defence and Aid Fund.

In 1994, she returned to South Africa, being employed by the South African Broadcasting Corporation until 2001.

On July 29th in 1997, she gave testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) about her experiences under apartheid, including her treatment while she was in her months long detainment.

In 2008, an unsent letter addressed to Sikakane from Nelson Mandela was discovered by a Nelson Mandela Foundation archivist.

Other
Sikakane is among the writers featured in the anthology Daughters of Africa.

Publications
Autobiography


 * A Window on Soweto (1977)