A Path Through Hard Grass: A Journalist's Memories of Exile and Apartheid

by Ruth Weiss

A child of a Jewish family fleeing Nazi-Germany and settling in apartheid South Africa in the 1930s, Ruth Weiss' journalistic career starts in Johannesburg of the 1950s. In 1968 banned from her home country, and then also from Rhodesia for her critical investigative journalism, she starts reporting from Lusaka, London and Cologne on virtually all issues which affect the newly independent African countries. Peasants and national leaders in southern Africa Ruth Weiss met them all, travelling through Africa at a time when it was neither usual for a woman to do so, nor to report for economic media as she did. Her writing gained her the friendship of diverse and interesting people. In this book she offers us glimpses into some of her many long-nurtured friendships, with Kenneth Kaunda or Nadine Gordimer and many others. Her life-long quest for tolerance and understanding of different cultures shines through the many personalized stories which her astute eye and pen reveals in this book. As she put it, one never sheds the cultural vest donned at birth, but this should never stop one learning about and accepting other cultures."

278 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Ruth Weiss was a German-born South African writer who focused on anti-racism in all its forms. She was a well-known anti-apartheid journalist and activist, exiled by South Africa and Rhodesia for her writings. She was based in Denmark and wrote in both English and German. Her historical fiction for young adults reflects her battles against racism in Germany and Africa.

Abridged from Wikipedia

Reviews

[anna sina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich with history and political topics; the autobiography of an admirable woman.