Footprints: A Black Journalist’s Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa and in Exile

“A deeply moving and inspiring portrait, from inside and out, of a trailblazer, a radical, and a true internationalist.”
―China Miéville, author of A Spectre, Haunting

“Footprints doesn’t shy away from the failures and defeats of the “Bandung era” or the tenacity of racism in Britain. But Morrison’s life is a testament to the power of journalism when it is committed to the cause of liberation.”
―Kevin Ochieng Okoth, author of Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics (2023)

“Anti-apartheid activist and journalist Lionel Morrison’s footprints are embedded in South Africa’s long walk to freedom. Lionel died before he could bring his memoir to life but wife and intellectual companion Liz Morrison has brought together the missing pieces – she is the sum of Lionel’s parts. From Cape Town to Kensal Rise, walk alongside them.”
―Atiha Sen Gupta, playwright and screenwriter

“This is a marvellous book – the testimony of a clever and brave black journalist who always managed to be at the centre of events and reported on them with unflinching clarity, in simple, luminous language, always putting human beings at the centre of his story.
―Francis Beckett, author, journalist and playwright

“Footprints is an extraordinary book about an extraordinary man, Lionel Morrison, who fought against the colonial system in South Africa and later racism in the UK, while engaged in international trade union work supporting workers of the global south. It is also extraordinary because the book is a collaborative labor of love with his wife Liz, who completed it after Lionel died. The blending of these two voices is a marvel to read.
―Mathatha Tsedu, South African journalist

“After passing his formative political years fighting apartheid in South Africa―including being arrested and tried―Lionel Morrison left for England and immediately threw himself into activism, championing the struggle against racial inequality. Morrison led the National Union of Journalists as its first black president, and forged an architecture within the union that ushered in long-lasting changes benefiting Black journalists for generations to come.”
―Jim Boumelha, former president of the International Federation of Journalists

“Given all that Lionel had been through―prison time under apartheid, the proximity to state-sponsored slaughter in Indonesia, trade union and anti-racist struggles in Britain―he could have been forgiven for being bitter or braggadocious. He would have been within his rights to explain that your travails were trivial compared with what he encountered. But, whatever toll these experiences did have on him, that was not his way. The stories he did tell might be funny or even dark, but he always shared to engage, not to make himself bigger or you smaller.”
―from the foreword by Gary Younge

“The South African-born British journalist Lionel Morrison, who was jailed for anti-apartheid activism and even stood trial for treason, spent his life covering struggles for equality the world over. Morrison eventually passed away in 2016. Completed by his partner Liz, Footprints: A Black Journalist’s Fight Against Apartheid in South Africa and in Exile tells the story of Morrison’s life, including his time at the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle, the rise of pan-African nationalism, and the rebellious days of the UK’s anti-racist and labor struggles.”
―Inkstick, Most Anticipated Books of 2026

Lionel Morrison was a South African journalist and pan-Africanist. Along with 155 others including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, Morrison was tried for treason in 1956. Following his exile from South Africa, he embraced Sukarno’s Indonesia, moved to China and was politically active across Africa before returning to Britain. His life’s work focused on journalism, trade unionism, and housing activism. He was the first black president of the National Union of Journalists in Britain.

Liz Morrison was born in England and is white. She was a community worker in the 1960s and a social worker. She has been actively supportive of the anti-apartheid movement for justice in South Africa and is active in supporting Palestine.

Gary Younge is a sociology professor at the University of Manchester. A new edition of his book Who Are We? How Identity Politics Took Over the World was published by Penguin in September.