Talk:Donald Woods

Untitled
Donald Wood's life was extraordinary. From beginning life not liking liberals to ending up being an anti-apartheid activist, he led a strong life. His family did a lot for him and he had a hard time escaping his banned area after taking illegal photographs of Biko (Steve) when dead. He was a person who had a mind.

Number of deaths in Soweto uprising
The number of children killed in the section on the Soweto uprising is given here as "at least 618", linking to an inaccessible online reference. There was originally no link to the main article on the uprising (I've added one) - that currently states: "The number of people who died is usually given as 176 with estimates up to 700" with three references. This discrepancy should be resolved... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Davidfraser (talk • contribs) 02:58, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

Witness to escape into exile
For what it's worth, this is my recollection, as a 14-year-old boy living in Gaborone, Botswana, of the day Woods escaped to freedom:

Having used covert and clandestine methods to smuggle himself and his family out of South Africa and into Lesotho, a story which caught the world's imagination and the attention of its media, Woods very wisely decided to switch tactics and to publicise as widely as possible his and his family's flight from Maseru to Gaborone. He did so only at the last minute, presumably using his familiarity with the then largely telex-based international news release system. The flight duration in the small propeller-driven plane -- I think I remember it was piston-engined, not a turbo-prop, but I might be wrong -- would have been about two and a half hours. The whole flight, except the first minute -- Maseru is right on Lesotho's border with South Africa -- and last five minutes -- Gaborone is 21km from Botswana's -- was over South African territory. The word spread like wildfire across Gaborone. I think most people feared he would not make it; I certainly did, though I very much hoped he would. Possibly the international focus, and the surprise, made the apartheid state's securocrats -- never the brightest crew -- hesitate just long enough. Anyway, my house was one of the nearest to Gaborone's (then) small urban airport (now replaced by a big out-of-town airport, and converted into the main military base). It was a short, familiar and easy walk. My brothers and friends and I -- a multi-racial group, it almost goes without saying, at least for anyone familiar with Gaborone -- gathered with a few dozen others and pressed our noses to the chain-link fence dividing the airside and public areas. We applauded wildly when the Woods family touched down and politely when they disembarked. They didn't hang around to pose or wave or anything, and we didn't blame them; they were still not completely safe yet.

We had so few signs of hope to cling to then, so few victories in those dark days, so few people telling the story of apartheid's iniquities so clearly and so effectively. The Woods' escape was a huge boost to the morale of everyone in southern Africa. We all owe Donald Woods a debt of gratitude. KindaQuantum (talk) 21:50, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

"South Africa went up in flames"
This strikes me as rabble-rousing, generalising tabloid language, surely not worthy of a Wikipedia article. There was plenty of death and destruction in Soweto itself, as well as other black townships - but the whole problem was precisely that South Africa didn't go up in flames. If it had, apartheid might have come to an end far earlier - instead of which it took almost 20 more years.81.243.111.99 (talk) 18:04, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

Incorrect details from Woods's book
We're told that Woods's daughter was burned by an "acid-laced" T-shirt. I'm fairly certain the substance on the T-shirt was ninhydrin, which can certainly cause skin irritation (but not actual burns - the purplish blotches on the little girl's face soon faded, whereas burn marks would remain) and, above all, is not an acid. It reacts with amino acids and so can be used to detect otherwise invisible fingerprints. This was the first and only time I ever heard of the stuff, so I remember it well. Nor do I think a T-shirt can be "laced" with a substance - a drink can be "laced" with something (such as rohypnol), but surely not a T-shirt.

I'm also fairly certain Woods did not escape disguised as an Anglican priest, but as a Catholic one. An Anglican priest would never be called "Father" (which he is also addressed as somewhere in the book), and at one point the disguised Woods tells someone he is in a hurry to get across to Lesotho because he has to celebrate early mass there in the town of Quthing (misspelled in the book as 'Qthing'); mass is only celebrated in the Catholic church, not the Anglican one. So the link from "Anglican" to the Wikipedia article on Anglicanism is irrelevant.213.127.210.95 (talk) 14:50, 15 August 2017 (UTC)


 * For the T-shirt try 'impregnated with ....'. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.150.18.209 (talk) 08:40, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

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