Conversations and Soliloquies

About the Book

In the midst of apartheid in South Africa, journalist Maurice Hommel documented the cruel injustices and tensions running rampant within the country. What he saw forever impacted his life.

Conversations and Soliloquies presents a collection of Hommel’s essays and articles from the last fifty-five years, documenting and analyzing South African history during and after apartheid. Over time, the essays illuminate, in sometimes graphic detail, the anti-apartheid struggle that defined South Africa for decades.

Beginning with the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, Hommel delves into the bloody history of apartheid and traces how it pervaded every segment of society. His interviews with prominent South Africans, including Desmond Tutu and Neville Alexander, offer intimate glimpses into the thoughts of those working for change. In addition, stark photographs capture the emotions of the time.

In its breadth of historical perspectives, this collection is a significant contribution to an understanding of South Africa’s evolution to a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic country. Although lingering prejudices and smoldering resentments remain, Hommel carries an unshakable optimism of South Africa’s enormous potential. Conversations and Soliloquies captures that hope.

About the Author

Maurice Hommel was a founding member of the now defunct South African Non-Racial Union of Journalists and its first national treasurer. He was also an executive member of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee. Hommel has a doctorate in political science and has taught at universities in Canada, South Africa, and the United States.