Donald Woods
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Donald Woods CBE |
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Donald Woods in 1978.
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| Born |
15 December 1933 Hobeni, Transkei, South Africa |
| Died | 19 August 2001 (aged 67) London, United Kingdom |
| Cause of death | Cancer |
| Occupation | |
Donald James Woods, CBE (15 December 1933 – 19 August 2001) was a South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist. As editor of the Daily Dispatch, he was known for befriending fellow activist Steve Biko, who died in police custody after being detained by the South African government. Woods continued his campaign against apartheid in London, and in 1978 became the first private citizen to address the United Nations Security Council.
Woods was born at Hobeni, Transkei, where his family had lived for five generations. His ancestors arrived in South Africa with the 1820 Settlers. His parents ran a trading post in Transkei, a tribal reserve, which the South African government would later designate a bantustan. As a boy Woods had extensive regular contact with the Bomvana people. He spoke fluent Xhosa and Afrikaans, as well as his mother tongue, English.
Woods and his brother, Harland, were sent to the Christian Brothers College in Kimberley in the predominantly Afrikaner Northern Cape for their secondary education. The school was academically rigorous, and the Irish Christian Brothers had a reputation for neutrality on questions of politics. While Woods was away at school, the National Party came to power in 1948 and began to build the apartheid structure. When he started his law course at the University of Cape Town in 1952, Woods supported government policies that separated the races, but was wary of the heavy hand of the Afrikaner National Party. During his legal studies he started to question the separatist views he grew up with, becoming politically active in the Federal Party, which rejected apartheid and drew its support from liberal English-speaking whites.
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