Donald Woods Profile

Donald Woods was born at Hobeni, in the Mbashe area of Transkei in the Eastern Cape in 1933. Following his appointment, aged 31, as Editor of the Daily Dispatch, he was prosecuted seven times under the apartheid government's publication laws and sentenced to jail for exposing Security Police brutality.

Following the death of his friend, Steve Biko, he was arrested by the Security Police and served with a banning order. After attacks on his home and family by the Security Police, he fled the country with his wife and five children, arriving in London in 1978. Part of his story is told in Richard Attenborough's film Cry Freedom.

In exile he wrote eight books and campaigned ceaselessly against apartheid. Prior to his death in 2001, Donald Woods was awarded a CBE for his services to human rights.

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