afrikanwomen:

Mamphela Aletta Ramphele is a South African academic, businesswoman, doctor and was an anti-apartheid activist. She is a current trustee on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.

She completed her schooling at Setotolwane High School in 1966 and 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. 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, 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 is the first South African to hold this position.

Ramphele has served as a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, 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.

Ramphele has received eighteen honorary degrees and numerous awards, including:

An Honorary Doctor of Law from the University of Cambridge in 2001.

An Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Hunter College of the City University of New York in 1984.

An Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Tufts University in May 1991.

An Honorary Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Natal.

The Medal of Distinction from Barnard College in the United States.

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 Radcliffe and Harvard Colleges.

An Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from New York University in May 2007