BENJAMIN POGRUND began working as a journalist for South Africa's Rand Daily Mail in 1958. He quickly became their specialist on "black affairs," with the title of "African affairs reporter," covering the activities of the ANC and black leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Robert Sobukwe, both of whom became Pogrund's lifelong friends. He rose to eventually become deputy editor of the paper during his 26-year tenure there. Pogrund survived the years under apartheid, as well as the demise of the Rand Daily Mail itself in the 1980s. Today, Pogrund heads the Center for Social Concern in Jerusalem, where he lives with his wife, Anne, an artist.
“Benjamin Pogrund was our bravest reporter . . . His courage was an
inspiration.” –Donald Woods, author of Biko: Cry
Freedom
“[Pogrund] unfolds three stories: South Africa's; that of
Johannesburg's Rand Daily Mail, for which he wrote from 1958
until its demise in 1985; and his own. Pogrund recounts his boyhood
as the son of Jewish Lithuanian immigrants and his adult commitment
to dispassionate reporting that could not be used as propaganda by
anyone. The book is a view of apartheid's bloodiest years from
inside South Africa's leading newspaper by a man who knew the
country's leaders personally and who appears candid about his own
mistakes and those he saw on all sides. Fascinating in both
perspective and detail.” –Thomas J. Davis, Library Journal
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