Cissie gool biography for kids

Zainunnisa "Cissie" Gool (6 November – 1 July ) was an anti-apartheid political and civil rights leader in South Africa. She was the daughter of prominent physician and politician Abdullah Abdurahman and mother Helen Potter James. Gool founded the National Liberation League and helped to create the Non-European United Front (NEUF).

Cissie gool biography for kids pictures Cissie was married and studying at university by that time. Her Passing. The government wanted Cape town to segregate buses. In , Cissy Gool was elected as president of the Non-European United Front, formed to coordinate organisations into an anti-imperialist liberation front that brought a range of organisations together.

She was known and loved as the "Jewel of District Six" and "Joan of Arc" by South Africans as a champion of the poor.^[1]

Life

Zainunnisa Gool was born on 6 November to Abdullah Abdurahman, leader of the African Peoples Organisation (APO) which he had helped to form in and was also the first Indian South African to be elected to the Cape Town City Council in ,^[2] and Helen Potter James.^[1]

Education

Gool came from a radical background and she was tutored by both Olive Schreiner and Mahatma Gandhi.

Gool and her sister, Rosie, attended the Trafalgar High School in District Six in Cape Town^[3] which had been founded by her father, an advocate of equality in public education. The head of the school was Harold Cressy who was championed by her father. She finished her secondary school education by a correspondence course at London University.

With this qualification, Gool enrolled to become the first coloured woman to receive a master's degree from the University of Cape Town and in , she became the first coloured female law graduate in South Africa and the first to be called to the Cape Bar.^[1]

Political work

In , the Women’s Enfranchisement Bill passed by General Hertzog’s government enfranchised white women only.

Cissie gool biography for kids What had happened was that Cissie and her mother had went to a store called Stuttafords. By Cissy Gool had formally joined the Communist Party of South Africa into which she had been inducted over the previous three years by Johnny Gomas, and through the inspirational influence of Ray Alexander. Cissie tried to have equal rights for everyone. Dr Abdurahman was also a member of the Cape Provincial Council from until his death in

In , Gool set up the League for the Enfranchisement of Non-European Women, arguing that coloured women should be qualified to vote in the Cape like men and white women.^[4]

From to , Cissie represented Cape Town's District Six on the Cape Town City Council, and for several years was the only woman (and the first black woman) serving on the City Council.

In , she was elected chairperson of the city council's health committee,^[2] the first black woman in the country to serve in local government.^[5] Known as the "Jewel of District Six" she represented the people of that constituency in the council until her death in , despite having been named as a Communist under the Suppression of Communism Act.^[6]

Family

Gool was the daughter of Dr.

Abdullah Abdurahman and his wife Helen James Potter.^[7] She married Dr. A. H. Gool, with whom she had three children: Marcina, and medical doctors Rustum and Shaheen.^[3]

Reception and legacy

References