Footprints - by Lionel Morrison & Liz Morrison

Book Synopsis

With sharp intellect and warm humor, Lionel Morrison tells the story of the struggle for freedom in South Africa and beyond, revealing the intimate experience of grand geopolitical shifts

Apartheid in South Africa was arbitrary and ferocious―its end is widely celebrated. Yet the monumental difficulties faced by the movement for liberation and the sacrifices made by ordinary yet remarkable individuals have been hidden in the broad sweep of time.

Celebrated journalist Lionel Morrison brings this history to life, honoring his forgotten comrades. He shares memories as a defendant in the Treason Trial and of periods in prison before being forced to flee South Africa as a stow away, meeting leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, the heady days of pan-African and Asian nationalism, and fighting racism in Britain.

Completed by Liz Morrison after her husband's death, Footprints is an ode to community, truth, and resistance.

Review Quotes

"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