Amy Biehl, an American Fulbright scholar, is killed in Gugulethu
Amy Biehl, a 26-year-old Fulbright scholar working with the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape, was killed by a crowd in Gugulethu while driving colleagues home.
Photo: Nkansahrexford · CC BY-SA 4.0
This moment describes violence or loss under apartheid. It is told through the people who lived it, from the sources linked below.
Amy Biehl came to South Africa as a Fulbright scholar and was attached to the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape, where her work included voter education and women's rights ahead of the 1994 election. On 25 August 1993 she was driving three colleagues home to Gugulethu when youths returning from a Pan Africanist Student Organisation meeting stoned her car on NY1. She ran towards a garage across the road but was caught and killed.
Four young men were convicted of her murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison. In July 1998 the TRC granted them amnesty, and her parents, Linda and Peter Biehl, did not oppose it. The Biehls set up the Amy Biehl Foundation in Cape Town to support young people, and two of the men, Easy Nofemela and Ntobeko Peni, later worked for it.
Why it matters
Her death, in the last months before democracy, drew international attention to political violence in the Cape. Her parents' support for amnesty made the case one of the best known examples of reconciliation to come out of the TRC.
- Source: TRC Amnesty Committee decision on the killing of Amy Biehl (Ntamo, Peni, Nofemela, Manqina), 28 July 1998 · University of the Western Cape, "Heritage Month: Amy Biehl's legacy of hope, forgiveness and youth empowerment lives on" · SAHA / SABC TRC Special Report, victim profile: Amy Biehl · SAHO, "Amy Biehl" · University of the Western Cape, "Voices in honour of Amy Biehl: Quinton Mtyala"
Where it happened
NY1 (now Steve Biko Drive), near the former Caltex garage at NY132, Gugulethu
The attack took place on NY1, and Amy Biehl was caught after running towards a garage across the road. The circle centres on the filling station (formerly Caltex) at the corner of NY1 and NY132, where the memorial stands; NY1 was renamed Steve Biko Drive in 2012. Accurate to about 150 m.
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Where it happened Approximate
NY1 (now Steve Biko Drive), near the former Caltex garage at NY132, Gugulethu
The attack took place on NY1, and Amy Biehl was caught after running towards a garage across the road. The circle centres on the filling station (formerly Caltex) at the corner of NY1 and NY132, where the memorial stands; NY1 was renamed Steve Biko Drive in 2012. Accurate to about 150 m.
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Memorial Exact site
Amy Biehl memorial
The granite memorial cross beside the filling station on Steve Biko Drive, where people gather each year on 25 August. Position from the OpenStreetMap memorial node.
