Asking for Trouble: The Autobiography of a Banned Journalist Book

In 1977 editor Donald Woods was silenced. Banning orders prevented him editing his newspaper, the Daily Dispatch, and writing his widely syndicated column. He had made his opposition to apartheid all too clear. An open critic of the National Party and a firm supporter of the Black Consciousness Movement, Woods had waged a journalistic war against the government for many years. The death of Steve Biko, the movement's founder, and the growth of personal attacks on Woods and his family finally compelled him to flee the country. In this honest and eloquent account of his life in South Africa, Donald Woods recounts his legal training, his progress as a journalist, and his advocacy of Black rights. Asking for trouble is an inspiring portrait of a courageous and uncompromising man at war with injustice. A REVIEW: Donald Woods' first book "Biko" was a powerful account of the life and violent death of a brilliant young black leader. It was the story of a white South African journalist and his political education. As an indictment of government savagery Biko was damning, but it left many questions unanswered. How was Woods, an "orthodox white liberal" as he called himself, able to discard his preconceptions and enter into Biko's vision of South Africa? What was it about Woods that first made Biko seek him out, talk with him and eventually become his friend? Asking for Trouble provides the human context for the political drama of Biko, and demonstrates that Woods on Woods is as intriguing a subject as Woods on Biko.Read More