Barry Streek
Donald Woods was a bit of a chancer, but with his enormous talents, his charm, his ability to talk himself out of virtually any situation and some luck, he made an unforgettable mark on South African journalism.
Few, if any, editors of a small daily newspaper in Africa have ever written an editorial that was then reprinted in full on the front page of Britain’s largest newspaper at the time, the Daily Mirror. Woods, however, did just that on October 17 1972.
He had rushed into his office in the East London Daily Dispatch to write a leader quickly so that he could keep a date on a golf course.
He spotted an absurd statement by then minister of defence PW Botha, asking who would rejoice if the Nationalist government was toppled. He quickly typed out an editorial that ended: “Surely he knows the answer: the whole bloody world will rejoice.”
It is a magnificent piece of journalistic writing. It was Woods at his very best. And he got to his golf game in time …
He took a stand on the disgraceful murder of Steve Biko that cost him his editorship, his luxurious home in Vincent, East London, and his country.
But true to his Catholic faith, he knew he had to make that stand because it was right. Few of Biko’s black consciousness comrades could really understand the relationship he developed with Woods. It took a number of people to persuade him to even meet Biko because until then he argued and wrote that black consciousness was racist.
However, once they had met, a personal bond developed and grew into deep friendship.
In the course of their many discussions, Biko told Woods that he would never commit suicide and Woods told him that if the police ever suggested he either killed himself or had died accidentally, he would expose the murder.
The moment Biko’s death was announced, Woods told the world he had been killed by the police. He went around the country and addressed numerous meetings stating this, despite vociferous official denials.
The only way the authorities could stop him was to ban him, as they did on Black Wednesday, October 19 1977, the day when 17 black consciousness organisations, the Christian Institute and The World newspaper were also banned.
It did not stop him. Nor did the people who shot at his house or the security police who sent a poisoned T-shirt to his youngest daugher, Mary.
He spent most of his time while he was banned playing table tennis, snooker or chess and writing the book Biko, which was published the following year and was later translated into 17 languages.
He escaped South Africa through Lesotho disguised as Catholic priest and went to Botswana and then Britain.
Some people have scorned him and questioned his motives, and he was unquestionably a liberal, something which irritated socialists and communists, but he made his commitment to Biko and he then did what he believed was right.
The film Cry Freedom is as much about Woods as it is about Biko, but it was basically accurate although the portrayal of his editor’s office with children’s toys in it was a fabrication.
Woods displayed similar courage in his fight against cancer. At one stage, he joked: “You know, at my age you lose a lung and a kidney.”
He was born in 1933 near Bashee river mouth in the Transkei and he grew up in the Ellioitdale district. For the first five years of his life he spoke Xhosa better than English and he never lost his love for the language and the people of the area.
They called him Zwelinyanyikima “the world shakes”.