Mamphela Ramphele
Encyclopedia
Mamphela Aletta Ramphele (born 28 December 1947) is a South Africa
n academic, businesswoman and medical doctor and was an anti-apartheid activist. She is a current trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation
in New York.
), in what is now Limpopo province. She completed her schooling at Setotolwane High School in 1966 and subsequently enrolled for pre-medical courses at the University of the North.
In 1968 Ramphele was accepted into the University of Natal
’s Medical School (then the only medical university that allowed black students to enroll without prior permission from the government), where she qualified as a medical doctor in 1972.
While at university she became increasingly involved in student politics and anti-apartheid activism and was one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement
(BCM), along with Steve Biko
. As a member of the BCM, she was especially involved in organizing and working with community development programmes. She and Biko had a long, passionate relationship. Though Biko was married at the time, he and Ramphele had two children, the first, a girl, Lerato Biko (1974), died of pneumonia at two months. Their son, Hlumelo Biko
, was born in 1978, after Biko's death.
Due to her political activities, she was internally banished by the apartheid government to the town of Tzaneen
from 1977 to 1984.
Continuing her academic studies, Ramphele received a Ph.D.
in Social Anthropology
from the University of Cape Town
, a Bachelor of Commerce degree
in Administration from the University of South Africa
as well as diplomas in Tropical Health & Hygiene
and Public Health
from the University of the Witwatersrand
. Ramphele has also authored and edited a number of books.
Ramphele joined the University of Cape Town as a research fellow
in 1986 and was appointed as one of its Deputy Vice-Chancellors in 1991. She was appointed to the post of Vice-Chancellor of the university in September 1996, thereby becoming the first black woman to hold such a position at a South African university.
In 2000, Ramphele became one of the four Managing Directors of the World Bank
. She was tasked with overseeing the strategic positioning and operations of the World Bank Institute
as well as the Vice-Presidency of External Affairs. She is the first South African to hold this position.
Ramphele has served as a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, as the director of the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa (IDASA) and as a board member of the Anglo-American Corporation and Transnet
.
Ramphele also serves as a trustee for The Link SA fund, a charitable organization that raises money to subsidise the tertiary education of South Africa's brightest underprivileged students. She also sits on the Board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation
, an organisation which supports good governance and great leadership in Africa.
She was voted 55th in the Top 100 Great South Africans
in 2004, a survey portrayed as mired in controversy.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n academic, businesswoman and medical doctor and was an anti-apartheid activist. She is a current trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
in New York.
Life and career
Ramphele was born in Kranspoort, near Pietersburg (now PolokwanePolokwane
Polokwane, meaning "Place of Safety",is a city in the Polokwane Local Municipality and the capital of the Limpopo province, South Africa. It is also often referred to by its former name, Pietersburg. Polokwane is a major urban centre, the biggest and most important north of Gauteng. The population...
), in what is now Limpopo province. She completed her schooling at Setotolwane High School in 1966 and subsequently enrolled for pre-medical courses at the University of the North.
In 1968 Ramphele was accepted into the University of Natal
University of Natal
The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...
’s Medical School (then the only medical university that allowed black students to enroll without prior permission from the government), where she qualified as a medical doctor in 1972.
While at university she became increasingly involved in student politics and anti-apartheid activism and was one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement
Black Consciousness Movement
The Black Consciousness Movement was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in...
(BCM), along with Steve Biko
Steve Biko
Stephen Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the...
. As a member of the BCM, she was especially involved in organizing and working with community development programmes. She and Biko had a long, passionate relationship. Though Biko was married at the time, he and Ramphele had two children, the first, a girl, Lerato Biko (1974), died of pneumonia at two months. Their son, Hlumelo Biko
Hlumelo Biko
Hlumelo Biko is a South African businessman and investment banker. He is the son of Steve Biko and Mamphela Ramphele. Ramphele was five months pregnant with him when she learned Biko had been killed in police custody. She named him Hlumelo because it means "the shoot growing from a dead tree trunk"...
, was born in 1978, after Biko's death.
Due to her political activities, she was internally banished by the apartheid government to the town of Tzaneen
Tzaneen
Tzaneen is a small town situated in the Mopani district of the Limpopo province in South Africa. It is in a fertile region with tropical and subtropical agriculture taking place in a 20,000 km² region...
from 1977 to 1984.
Continuing her academic studies, Ramphele received a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in Social Anthropology
Social anthropology
Social Anthropology is one of the four or five branches of anthropology that studies how contemporary human beings behave in social groups. Practitioners of social anthropology investigate, often through long-term, intensive field studies , the social organization of a particular person: customs,...
from the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
, a Bachelor of Commerce degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Administration from the University of South Africa
University of South Africa
The University of South Africa is a distance education university, with headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa. With approximately 300 000 enrolled students, it qualifies as one of the world's mega universities.-History:...
as well as diplomas in Tropical Health & Hygiene
Hygiene
Hygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between...
and Public Health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
from the University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
. Ramphele has also authored and edited a number of books.
Ramphele joined the University of Cape Town as a research fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
in 1986 and was appointed as one of its Deputy Vice-Chancellors in 1991. She was appointed to the post of Vice-Chancellor of the university in September 1996, thereby becoming the first black woman to hold such a position at a South African university.
In 2000, Ramphele became one of the four Managing Directors of the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
. She was tasked with overseeing the strategic positioning and operations of the World Bank Institute
World Bank Institute
The World Bank Institute is the capacity development branch of the World Bank. It provides learning programs, policy advice and technical assistance to policy makers, government and non-government agencies and development practitioners of developing countries...
as well as the Vice-Presidency of External Affairs. She is the first South African to hold this position.
Ramphele has served as a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, as the director of the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa (IDASA) and as a board member of the Anglo-American Corporation and Transnet
Transnet
Transnet SOC Ltd is a large South African rail, port and pipeline company, headquartered in the Carlton Centre in Johannesburg. It was formed as a limited company on April 1, 1990. A majority of the company's stock is owned by the Department of Public Enterprises, or DPE, of the South African...
.
Ramphele also serves as a trustee for The Link SA fund, a charitable organization that raises money to subsidise the tertiary education of South Africa's brightest underprivileged students. She also sits on the Board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation
Mo Ibrahim Foundation
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation was launched in October 2006 to support good governance and great leadership in Africa.It was founded by Dr.Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese philanthropist and businessman who founded telecommunications company Celtel International in 1998....
, an organisation which supports good governance and great leadership in Africa.
She was voted 55th in the Top 100 Great South Africans
SABC3's Great South Africans
Great South Africans was a South African television series that aired on SABC3 and hosted by Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu and Denis Beckett. In September 2004, thousands of South Africans took part in an informal nationwide poll to determine the "100 Greatest South Africans" of all time...
in 2004, a survey portrayed as mired in controversy.
Honorary degrees and awards
Ramphele has received eighteen honorary degrees and numerous awards, including:- An Honorary Doctor of Law from the University of CambridgeUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in 2001. - An Honorary DoctorateHonorary degreeAn honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
in Humane Letters from Hunter CollegeHunter CollegeHunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
of the City University of New YorkCity University of New YorkThe City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
in 1984. - An Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Tufts UniversityTufts UniversityTufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
in May 1991. - An Honorary Doctorate in Medicine from the University of NatalUniversity of NatalThe University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...
. - The Medal of Distinction from Barnard CollegeBarnard CollegeBarnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. - Ramphele is also a former fellow of the Bunting Institute and was elected as an honorary member of the Alpha and Iota chapters of Phi Beta Kappa at RadcliffeRadcliffe CollegeRadcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
and HarvardHarvard CollegeHarvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
Colleges. - An Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from New York University in May 2007
Publications
- Uprooting Poverty: The South African Challenge, 1989, Co-author. This book draws together research conducted by the second Carnegie inquiry into poverty and development in South Africa and received the 1990 Noma AwardNoma AwardThe Noma Award for Publishing in Africa is a $10,000 prize for outstanding African writers and scholars who publish in Africa. Established in 1979, the award is annual and given to any new book published in three categories: literature, juvenile and scholarly...
, an annual prize given to African writers and scholars whose work is published in Africa. - Bounds of Possibility: The Legacy of Steve Biko, 1991, Co-editor.
- Restoring the Land, 1992, Editor This publication deals with the ecological challenges facing post-apartheid South Africa.
- A Bed called Home, 1993, Author. This book was based on Ramphele's PhD thesisThesisA dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
in Social Anthropology, The Politics of Space, and deals with life in the migrant labour hostels of Cape TownCape TownCape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. - Mamphela Ramphele - A Life, 1995, Author.
- Across Boundaries: The Journey of a South African Woman Leader, 1996, Author.
- Laying Ghosts to Rest: Dilemmas of the transformation in South Africa, 2008, Author.