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Books: Death Of An Idealist In Search Of Neil Aggett

Fitting tribute to unsung hero of anti-apartheid

Death Of An Idealist In Search Of Neil Aggett

by Beverley Naidoo

(Jonathan Ball, £15.95)

The recent death of Nelson Mandela is a useful reminder that there were, alongside him, many other lesser-known or even unknown individuals who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the apartheid system.

One of those was the young white medical doctor Neil Aggett, who died in a police cell at the tender age of 28. This belated biography by Beverley Naidoo is a well-researched and moving tribute to him.

Born to a colonial settler family in Kenya, Aggett moved to South Africa when independence was declared in the east African state. His parents were typical right-wing colonialists who fought against the Kenyan independence movement tooth and nail before fleeing south.

Aggett was a small child when the family moved and became radicalised during his student days in South Africa.

After graduating, he began working as a young medic for the black trade unions, work which brought home to him how ill health was directly related to extreme poverty, racism and exploitation.

He became completely committed to the struggle to overthrow the apartheid system and began working with others close to the ANC. He was arrested not long afterwards and held in detention for 70 days, under increasingly brutal interrogation by a paranoid, born-again Christian security officer.

On February 5 1982 he was found hanged from the bars of his cell window. Was it suicide or murder? Perhaps we will never know but what is certain is that the vicious apartheid system was responsible for his death.

He is one of the many unsung heroes of that long struggle to free South Africa but his chief interrogator is today still enjoying the good life there, while Aggett's family and friends are still struggling to come to terms with his unnecessary death.

This very well-written and absorbing book is a stark reminder of that dark period of South African history. As Brecht said, "pity the country that needs heroes," but South Africa did need and had a good share of them.

But, at the risk of sounding ungenerous, a shorter and less detailed biography may have served Aggett's memory and the struggle more effectively.

John Green

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