Mary Benson (campaigner)

Born in 1919 in Pretoria,^[4] Benson served in the South African Women's Army during World War II.^[5] After the war, she was secretary to film director David Lean.^[3][5]

Benson became acquainted with the author Alan Paton, and read his novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), whose main theme was racial discrimination in South Africa.^[5] This affected her greatly, and she became a campaigner for the rights of black South Africans.^[4][6]

She worked with Michael Scott (who, in 1946, was the first white man to be jailed for resisting South Africa's racial laws),^[7] becoming his secretary in 1950.^[8] With Scott, Benson helped to found the African Bureau.^[5]

In 1957, Benson was appointed secretary to the Treason Trial Defence Fund.^[8] In 1961, Benson took on another secretarial role, moving to Natal to assist Chief Albert Lutuli when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.^[1]

Through all this work, Benson became familiar with the African National Congress (ANC). She assisted Nelson Mandela's escape from South Africa in 1962,^[8] and interviewed several prominent figures in the ANC, including Walter Sisulu and James Calata.^[9] Based upon these experiences, she wrote the first general history of the ANC: The African Patriots (London: Faber & Faber, 1964).^[9]

She testified to the United Nations Committee on Apartheid in 1963, and was the first South African to do so.^[6] She was placed under house arrest and "banned" in 1966.^[8] She subsequently left the country and lived in exile, settling in London, England.^[4][1]

Benson's biography of Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandela: the Man and the Movement (1986), was the second biography of Nelson Mandela to be written.^[10] It was banned in apartheid South African upon its publication.^[4]

Benson was close friends with the playwright Athol Fugard. She edited his Notebooks 1960–1977 (Faber and Faber, 1983) and wrote Athol Fugard and Barney Simon: Bare Stage, a Few Props, Great Theater (Ravan Press, 1997).^[4][11][12]

She appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 16 February 1997.^[6]

A few months prior to Benson's death, Nelson Mandela visited her at her flat in London.^[1][13]

Benson died on 19 June 2000.^[4][5] Her papers, including correspondence with Semane Molotlegi and those relating to her biography of Tshekedi Khama, are archived in the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Oxford.^[5] Other papers, including material relating to her biography of Nelson Mandela and correspondence with fellow anti-apartheid activists, forms part of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies archive collections held at Senate House Library.^[14]

• The Tragedy of Apartheid. Christian Action. 1958.^[15]
• The Badge of Slavery (The pass laws of South Africa). Christian Action. 1960.^[16]
• Tshekedi Khama. Faber and Faber. 1960.^[17]
• Chief Albert Lutuli of South Africa. Oxford University Press. 1963.^[18]
• African Patriots. The story of the African National Congress of South Africa. Faber and Faber. 1963.^[9]
• South Africa: The Struggle for a Birthright. Penguin, Harmondsworth. 1966.^[9]
• At The Still Point. Gambit, Boston, USA. 1969.
• Nelson Mandela: The man and the movement. W.W. Norton & Co. 1986. ISBN 978-0393022964.^[19]
• A Far Cry: The Making of a South African. Viking, London. 1989.^[9]
• Athol Fugard and Barney Simon: Bare Stage, a Few Props, Great Theatre. Ravan Press, Randburg, South Africa. 1997.^[12]

• List of people subject to banning orders under apartheid
• The papers of Mary Benson are held by SOAS Archives
• Louise Bethlehem (2019) "Stenographic fictions: Mary Benson’s At the Still Point and the South African political trial," Safundi, 20:2, 193-212. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17533171.2019.1576963