Ruth First

Ruth First
Born	4 May 1925 Johannesburg, South Africa
Died	17 August 1982 Maputo Mozambique
Cause of death	Assassination
Political party	SACP

Ruth First (4 May 1925 – 17 August 1982) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and intellectual. She spent 117 days in jail in 1963 and was a member of the liberation struggle along with Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo. In 1970, she published The Barrel of a Gun, a study of coups throughout Africa. She noted that many African countries fell to military dictatorships after becoming independent. A South African death squad killed her in Mozambique in 1982.