I’ve just started Donald Woods’ biography Biko, from which the film Cry Freedom was 
made. It is an interesting read so far, although I’ve just begun. It isn’t so much memoir or biography, at least at this stage. It starts with a potted history of South Africa since European settlement and runs through the main political themes that run through the history. Differences between natives, Afrikaners and British, then different streams of thought and movements which emerged out of the black population. Interesting stuff.
On the bus, someone asked me what a white liberal like Woods would know about the Black Consciousness movement. Perhaps a lot, perhaps nothing – but the people whose writing and speeches he quotes extensively might just know quite a little bit about it.
Very interesting dedication at the beginning of the book, where Woods gives names and dates for all the people who died in police custody “slipping in the shower” and who “fell seven floors during questioning”.
