A riveting and moving memoir, portraying the intense struggle for freedom in South Africa.
Apartheid in South Africa was arbitrary and ferocious―its end is widely celebrated. Yet, the monumental difficulties faced by the anti-apartheid movement and the sacrifices made by individuals have been hidden in the broad sweep of time.
Beloved journalist Lionel Morrison brings this history to life again, honouring his forgotten comrades. He shares memories as a defendant alongside Nelson Mandela in the Treason Trials, being forced to leave South Africa, meeting leaders of the non-aligned movement, the heady days of Third World nationalism, fighting subtle racism in Britain, and much more. With sharp intellect and warm humour, Morrison’s stories reveal the intimate experience of grand geopolitical shifts―and how politics is lived.
Completed by Liz Morrison after her husband’s death, Footprints is an ode to community, truth, and resistance.
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"Given all that Lionel had been through―prison time under apartheid, the proximity to state-sponsored slaughter in Indonesia, trade union and anti-racist struggles in Britain―he could have been forgiven for being bitter or braggadocious. He would have been within his rights to explain that your travails were trivial compared with what he encountered. But, whatever toll these experiences did have on him, that was not his way. The stories he did tell might be funny or even dark, but he always shared to engage, not to make himself bigger or you smaller."
―from the foreword by Gary Younge