The Rift

by Hilda Bernstein

500 pages jonathan Cape (1994) English 0224035460 978-0224035460 Product 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches

500 pages, Hardcover

First published February 17, 1994

About the author

Hilda Bernstein (May 15, 1915 – September 8, 2006) was an author, artist, and an activist against apartheid and for women's rights. She was born Hilda Schwarz in London and emigrated to South Africa at the age of 18 years and became active in politics. She married fellow activist Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein in March 1941, and together they played prominent roles in the struggle to end Apartheid in South Africa. After her husband was tried and acquitted in the Rivonia Trial in 1964, government harassment forced them to flee to Botswana, an ordeal described in her book The World that was Ours, which was republished by Persephone Books in 2009. They lived in Britain for some years where she further established herself internationally as a speaker, writer, and artist. She returned with her husband to South Africa in 1994 for the South African election in which fellow activist Nelson Mandela was elected President. She died at the age of 91 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Published works:
The World that was Ours (1967, reissued by Persephone Books in 2009)
The Terrorism of Torture
For Their Triumphs and For Their Tears: Women in Apartheid South Africa (Africa Fund, 1985)
Steve Biko (Victor Kamkin, 1978)
No. 46: Steve Biko (Victor Kamkin, 1978)
Death is Part of the Process (Sinclair Browne)
The Rift: The Exile Experience of South Africans
A World of One's Own (reprinted as Separation, Corvo Books)
The Trials of Nelson Mandela

Reviews

[Jeneane Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book and the shorter version, "The World that was Ours" is amazing. I studies Namibia to write a paper and read about her and all of the amazing, courageous accomplishments for which she and her husband were applauded but also hated. She writes beautifully. I have read it twice.