Lives of courage

In 1987 and 1988, Diana Russell journeyed from America to the land of her birth to learn about the special role of women in the ongoing struggle against apartheid in South Africa. The fruit of her research is this extraordinary book: the firsthand accounts, in their own words, of twenty-four women activists. These are not only world-famous leaders but ordinary wives and mothers who are trade unionists, members of radical organizations, student activists - black and white, Indian and Coloured, young and old. Lives of Courage compellingly dramatizes the little-knovm role of women who fight apartheid and its cruel apparatus-house arrests, banning, imprisonment, and torture - even as they strive to keep together their beleaguered families. With rare candor, they speak of the price they and their families have paid for their activism, of the difficulties of being a woman in a racist and sexist society, of the terrors they have endured, and of the dreams they nourish of a new South Africa. The fighting spirit of these women, their courage and conviction in the face of a modern state's vindictiveness, shines from every page of this inspiring book.