LILIAN NGOYI, a life

350pp., illus., paperback, Penguin, Cape Town, 2026

ISBN: 9781776094790

An authoritative and deeply researched biography of anti-apartheid avtivist Lilian Ngoyi, a key architect of the 1956 Women’s March and the first woman elected to the ANC’s National Executive Committee.

Lilian Ngoyi (1911-1980), born in a Pretoria township, widowed young and raising her family in poverty, was the most senior ANC woman leader not married to a high-profile man, forging her own path through her political instinct, charisma and courage.

Active in the Garment Workers’ Union, President of the Federation of South African Women and the ANC Women’s League, she rose to national prominence and travelled abroad as a representative of the liberation movement. Arrested in 1956 she stood trial for high treason alongside 156 others in what became known as the Treason Trial. While out on bail she was imprisoned for five months, most of this time in solitary confinement. Shortly after her acquittal in 1961 she was issued with banning orders - she was banned and under house arrest for a total of 18 years. 

"An absorbing account of the life and times of Lilian Ngoyi that helped me understand how MaNgoyi was radicalised, how she developed into a formidable leader and how women forged themselves into an indispensable force in the struggle against apartheid." Mac Maharaj, ANC veteran, former Robben Islander and cabinet minister

"Vividly and expertly situates the fearless and free-spirited Lilian Ngoyi within the contexts that shaped her and the politics she shaped." Elleke Boehmer, author of Nelson Mandela

Martha Evans is Associate Professor at the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, and author of Broadcasting the End of Apartheid: Live Television and the Birth of the New South Africa and Speeches that Shaped South Africa: From Malan to Malema.