Alan Wieder, Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid

Start: 08/20/2013 7:00 pm

End: 08/20/2013 8:00 pm

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid

Ruth First and Joe Slovo, husband and wife, were leaders in the war to end apartheid in South Africa. Communists, scholars, parents, and uncompromising militants, they were the pefect enemy for the white police state. Together they were swept up in the growing resistance to apartheid, and together they experienced repression and exile. Only one of them would survive to see the fall of the old regime and the founding of a new, democratic South Africa.
Alan Wieder's book is the first extended biography of Ruth First and Joe Slovo. The heavily researched work draws on primary and secondary sources, as well as an extensive oral history that he has collected over many years. Intertwining personal interviews with the documentary record, Wieder portrays the complexities and contradictions of this extraordinary couple and their efforts to navigate a time of great tension, upheaval, and revolutionary hope. Nadine Gordimer has contributed the foreword to this book.