Bloody Sunday: The nun, the Defiance Campaign and South Africa's secret massacre

by Mignonne Breier

Winner of the Sunday Times Nonfiction Award 2022Sunday, 9 November 1952. It should be remembered as a day of infamy but few know of a brutal massacre when police opened fire at an ANC Youth League event in Duncan Village in East London. In the cover-up that followed, the facts were almost lost to history. Bloody Sunday follows the trail of the remarkable Sister Aidan, who worked in the township, to piece together one of the most tragic days of the apartheid era.

364 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 16, 2021

Reviews

[Free Palestine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is about a traumatic event in the apartheid era but misses a large amount about the political situation, the British and Dutch whites who caused this and how lots of evidence was destroyed on this case. The writer loses the actual aspect of location and naivety of the whites in the church environment, as well as lack of any real investigation. This book felt like it was written just to make some money for the author, very badly written in many aspects.

[Jessica Robey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating, in-depth account of that fateful day and the events leading up to it and after it. I learnt a huge amount about South Africa's history reading this book. Mignonne has done a remarkable job of condensing a huge amount of research into this book.

[Øystein Brekke · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its best, it's a very good example of how to describe a whole society and historical situation by going in-depth into a single person. At times though, the enormous weigth given to one of the victims compared to all the others who died on the same day, is a bit jarring.