Footprints: A Black Journalist's Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa and in Exile

by Lionel Morrison, Liz Morrison

Overview

A riveting and moving memoir, portraying the intense struggle for freedom in South Africa.

Apartheid in South Africa was arbitrary and ferocious―its end is widely celebrated. Yet, the monumental difficulties faced by the anti-apartheid movement and the sacrifices made by individuals have been hidden in the broad sweep of time.

Beloved journalist Lionel Morrison brings this history to life again, honouring his forgotten comrades. He shares memories as a defendant alongside Nelson Mandela in the Treason Trials, being forced to leave South Africa, meeting leaders of the non-aligned movement, the heady days of Third World nationalism, fighting subtle racism in Britain, and much more. With sharp intellect and warm humour, Morrison’s stories reveal the intimate experience of grand geopolitical shifts―and how politics is lived.

Completed by Liz Morrison after her husband’s death, Footprints is an ode to community, truth, and resistance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798888905944
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	06/09/2026
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.79(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Lionel Morrison was a South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist. Morrison, along with 156 others including Nelson Mandela, was tried for treason in 1956. He was exiled from South Africa and lived in Britain where his life's work focused on his journalism, trade unionism and housing activism. He was the first Black president of the National Union of Journalists in Britain.

Liz Morrison was born in England. She was a community worker in the 1960s and a social worker with her local authority. She has been active in the anti-apartheid movement throughout her life, for justice in South Africa and in Palestine. 

Table of Contents

Foreword by Gary Younge
Influential journalist Gary Younge’s brief foreword for the book describes Lionel as a mentor and friend.
Introduction by Liz Morrison
Part I. South Africa
Chapter 1. The Net is Closing In
Lionel begins the book by describing his escape from South Africa, and finding himself in exile in Britain.
Chapter 2. Standing up to Mr. Vorster
Lionel remembers his early childhood, his grandparents and cousins, in the backdrop of a country sliding towards apartheid.
Chapter 3. School in Zululand
Lionel describes his years at school, and his political awakening in Zululand. Lionel’s father takes him to Nelson Mandela for career advice.
Chapter 4. Politics. Politics.
Lionel traces his early political involvement in the campaign to draft South Africa’s Freedom Charter, with input from thousands of participants around the country.
Chapter 5. Turning Twenty-One in Prison
Lionel describes his first prison sentence, and the grim conditions of the Fort.
Chapter 6. Agony Aunt with the Drum
Lionel remembers his first job as a journalist at Drum, an important magazine that documented Black South African life, particularly during apartheid.
Chapter 7. On Trial for Treason
A riveting first-hand account of the Treason Trial in South Africa, in which 156 activists including Nelson Mandela were accused.
Chapter 8. A Struggle Over Representation
Lionel describes his disagreement with other comrades and splits in the South African Coloured People’s Organisation, which left him feeling isolated.
Chapter 9. Time to Go
Lionel is incarcerated once more after the notorious Sharpeville massacre, and faces difficulties working as a journalist once he is released, finally deciding to leave South Africa for Britain.
Part II. Exile
Chapter 10. A Very British Racism
Lionel begins his new life in London, working for the Anti-Apartheid Movement, reconnecting with old friends now in exile, and campaigning against apartheid within the unions.
Chapter 11. Behind the Iron Curtain
Lionel becomes involved in the Pan-Africanist Congress, non-aligned movement, meets journalists in Eastern Europe, travels to Ghana, and lives on communes in China, almost dying in a pigsty!
Chapter 12. A Coup
Lionel describes his time in Indonesia, going through a coup that led to the devastating murder of his girlfriend and many friends, forcing him to relocate to Algeria and then China.
Chapter 13. Kicked Out of Zambia
Lionel relocated to Zambia to continue his journalism, but was eventually kicked out along with other members of the Pan-African Congress due to rumours of an attempted coup.
Part III. Liz Morrison
Chapter 14. A New Start in London
Liz describes her experience of meeting and getting to know Lionel Morrison.
Chapter 15. A Marriage
Lionel and Liz get married; although, it becomes clear to Liz that Lionel’s commitment to his work and activism will often take priority.
Chapter 16. Sued for Libel
Lionel faces a libel trial after writing an article about British police racism.
Chapter 17. Meeting Lionel’s Family
Liz describes a moving, poignant trip to South Africa to meet Lionel’s family.
Chapter 18. A Visa for Lionel
Lionel’s mother is diagnosed with cancer and after seventeen years, Lionel manages to briefly return to South Africa before his mother passes away.
Chapter 19. Being Challenged
Liz recalls the difficult 1980s with Thatcher in power, a visit from Lionel’s father, her son’s friend, China Mieville, staying at their home over summer; she speaks frankly about the challenge of being a white mother to two black sons, and the mistakes she made along the way.
Chapter 20. First Black President
Liz writes about Lionel’s year as the first black president of the National Union of Journalists in Britain, the battles he faced working under a government hostile to strong unions, and the positive changes he encouraged within the union.
Chapter 21. Health Matters
Lionel survives a serious heart attack, and is compelled to slow down.
Chapter 22. New South Africa
Nelson Mandela is released from prison, and a period of tense negotiations ensues in South Africa. Lionel and Liz visit ‘a new’ South Africa, travelling there together for the first time.
Chapter 23. Housing Matter
Chapter 24. Lionel is Eighty

Editorial Reviews

"Given all that Lionel had been through―prison time under apartheid, the proximity to state-sponsored slaughter in Indonesia, trade union and anti-racist struggles in Britain―he could have been forgiven for being bitter or braggadocious. He would have been within his rights to explain that your travails were trivial compared with what he encountered. But, whatever toll these experiences did have on him, that was not his way. The stories he did tell might be funny or even dark, but he always shared to engage, not to make himself bigger or you smaller."
―from the foreword by Gary Younge

From the Publisher