Donald Woods

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Donald James Woods, CBE (December 15, 1933 – August 19, 2001) was a South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist.

As editor of the Daily Dispatch from 1965 to 1977, he befriended Steve Biko, leader of the anti-apartheid Black Consciousness Movement, and was banned by the government soon after Biko's death, which had been caused by serious head injuries, sustained while in police custody. Woods fled to London, where he continued to foster opposition to apartheid. In 1978, he became the first private citizen to address the U.N. Security Council.

Contents 1 Early history 2 Relationship with Steve Biko 3 Life in exile 4 Return to South Africa 5 Works

[edit] Early history

Woods was born in East London, South Africa, where his family had lived for five generations. Donald's ancestors arrived in South Africa in 1820 to settle in, what was seen then by whites as, an empty land to the east of Cape Town; the land had however been settled by the Khoisan, Khoikhoi and Xhosa peoples for many hundreds of years.

Woods grew up in a typical white South African lifestyle. When he attended the University of Cape Town, where he studied law, he was hopeful that the newly elected National Party government would create a better South Africa, with its new system of apartheid, benefiting the entire population.

He became a cub reporter and eventually went to work for the Daily Dispatch newspaper in East London, in his beloved Eastern Cape. During this time he met and married his wife, Wendy. They were soon the parents of a large family (including five children and a dog), and Donald later became the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Dispatch.

[edit] Relationship with Steve Biko

Under Woods, the Daily Dispatch was very critical of the South African government, but was also critical of the emerging Black Consciousness Movement under the leadership of Steve Biko. A young black woman, Mamphela Ramphele, berated Woods for writing misleading stories about the movement, challenging him to meet with Biko.

The two men became friends, leading to the South African Bureau Of State Security monitoring Woods' movements. Despite this, Woods continued to provide political support to Biko, both through writing editorial in his newspaper and controversially hiring black journalists to the Daily Dispatch.

On June 16, 1976, rioting broke out in Soweto, in which young students from Soweto participated in a march to protest against being taught in Afrikaans and against the Bantu education system in general. They marched from the Morris Isaacson School intending to hold a rally outside the Education buildings in Johannesburg. The children were met by the police and ordered to disperse. The children refused and the police opened fire. As the children pelted the police with stones, South Africa went up in flames. The government responded by banning the entire Black Consciousness Movement along with many other political organisations, as well as issuing banning orders to various individuals. Donald Woods was one of the banned individuals and was effectively placed under house arrest.

Steve Biko had been involved in clandestine contacts with two outlawed liberation movements, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC).^{[citation needed]} Returning to his home one evening from a trip to Cape Town, Biko was arrested, imprisoned and mortally beaten. He was transported naked and manacled for 740 miles (1200 km) in the back of a police van to Pretoria, and died on the way. James Kruger, the Minister of Justice, claimed that Biko died on a hunger strike. Speaking in Afrikaans, he said of Biko's death, "Dit laat my koud" ("It leaves me cold").

Woods went to the morgue with Biko's wife Ntsiki and photographed Biko's battered body. The photographs were later published in Woods' book, exposing the South African government's cover up of the cause of Biko's death.

[edit] Life in exile

It became clear to Woods that his family was being targeted by the government, and he decided his family needed to leave South Africa to avoid the dangerous threats from the South African government. Woods then devised a plan to be smuggled out of his house, and made his way to Lesotho disguised as an Irish Catholic priest, where his family joined him shortly thereafter. With the help of the British High Commission (in Maseru) and from the Lesotho Government , they flew via Botswana to London and were granted political asylum.

After arriving in London, Woods became an active spokesman against apartheid. Acting upon the advice of Oliver Tambo, the President of the ANC, Woods became a passionate advocate of nations imposing sanctions against South Africa. He toured the United States campaigning for sanctions against apartheid. The trip included a three hour session, arranged by President Jimmy Carter, to address officials in the U.S. Department of State. Woods also spoke at a session of the United Nations Security Council in 1978.

Director Richard Attenborough decided to make a film, titled Cry Freedom, about Steve Biko, based upon the books which Woods had written. Donald and Wendy Woods became very involved in the project, working closely with actors and crew. Woods was portrayed by American actor Kevin Kline who became friends with Woods and his wife and family during the filming. The friendship continued until Woods' death in 2001.

On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after serving twenty-seven years on Robben Island. That Easter, Mandela came to London to attend a concert at Wembley Stadium to thank the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the British people for all their years of campaigning against apartheid. Woods gave Mandela a tie in the black, green and gold colours of the African National Congress to celebrate the event. On Easter Sunday, Mandela phoned to thank Woods' family for the tie and said that he would wear it at the concert the next day, which he did. Woods stood to attention throughout the phone call.

[edit] Return to South Africa

Woods returned to South Africa in 1994 to support the fund-raising efforts for the ANC election fund. His son Dillon was one of the organizers of the fund-raising appeal in the United Kingdom. On April 27, 1994, Woods went to vote at the City Hall in Johannesburg. A cheering crowd took him to the head of the queue, giving him the place of honour so that he could be one of the first to vote in the new South Africa. Following the election, Donald worked for the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg.

On September 9, 1997, on the twentieth anniversary of the death of Steve Biko, Woods was present in East London when a statue of Biko was unveiled by Nelson Mandela and the bridge across the Buffalo River was renamed the "Biko Bridge". Woods also gave his support to the Action for Southern Africa event in Islington, London honouring Biko, helping to secure messages from Ntsiki Biko, Mamphela Ramphele (then the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town) and Mandela.

In the last year of his life, Donald gave his name to support the appeal to raise funds to erect a statue of Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar Square outside the South African High Commission, where anti-apartheid campaigners had demonstrated during the period of the apartheid regime. He was also awarded an Order of the British Empire.

Woods died of cancer on August 19, 2001.

[edit] Works

• Asking for Trouble
• South African Dispatches
• Biko. Originally published by Paddington Press, London and New York, 1978; later edition published by Henry Holt, New York, 1987.
• Filming with Attenborough
• Rainbow Nation Revisited: South Africa's Decade of Democracy