John Epaminondas Laredo (13 February 1932 – 1 October 2000) was bornin Pretoria, South Africa. He was brought up speaking Afrikaans andEnglish, and later learned Zulu and several other languages.
In 1951, Laredo went to Stellenbosch University, followed by a master's insocial anthropology at King's College, Cambridge. He returned to SouthAfrica in 1958 with his wife Ursula Marx, lecturing in African studies atUniversity of Cape Town.He then moved to Durban in 1959 to undertakeanthropological fieldwork in kwaZulu at Natal University, where hesubsequently became a sociology lecturer.
John gradually became convinced that white rule was responsible for black poverty, andbecame active in the anti-apartheid movement.Soon after theSharpeville massacre in 1960, John, at that time head of social anthropology atRhodes University, Port Elizabeth, was detained and interrogated for 110 days,under the "90-day" detention clause, and then jailed for five years.Banned andhouse-arrested on his release, he went into exile in England.From 1970-71, hewas Resident Visiting Fellow at King's. He then joined the newBradford University's sociology department.
His marriage to Ursula Marx broke down, but in 1986 he met Ailsa Swarbrick, anOpen University lecturer who had lived in Tanzania, with whom he enjoyedgreat happiness for the rest of his life.John suffered a heart attack in 1990,and he retired in 1993.After the end of apartheid, he and Ailsa were able torevisit South Africa, and were honoured by an invitation to lunch with PresidentNelson Mandela.
John Laredo died suddenly in Leeds, UK, on 1 October 2000.