Comrades

by Barbara Borst

Sandile Malindi refuses to join student strikes that convulse apartheid South Africa. A proud son of Soweto merchants, he is determined to continue his education. Peter Seibert, a white American new to Johannesburg, inadvertently offends Sandile when they meet at their private high school but earns his trust on the sports field. Kagiso Mafolo, a Soweto student organizer, visits her aunt, a maid at the Seiberts’ home. She charms Peter but clashes with Sandile over his absence from the freedom struggle. Working through conflicts over race, wealth and ideology, the three build friendships, discover love, confront danger and help each other survive in tumultuous times.


Barbara Borst teaches at New York University in the Journalism Institute and in the master’s program at the Center for Global Affairs, where she leads study groups to Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Previously, she was an editor on the international desk at The Associated Press and frequently reported from the United Nations. While based abroad for a dozen years, in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Paris and Toronto, she wrote for Newsday, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Los Angeles Times, Inter Press Service news agency, and others. Her recent work appears on her website, CivicIdea.com, as well as on The Huffington Post.

328 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2020

About the author

Barbara Borst worked as a journalist in South Africa during the final years of the struggle to end apartheid. Through that reporting, she had the chance to interview not only the leaders on all sides of the conflict but also many of the young people who played dramatic roles in the protests that brought about change. Their commitment to justice and their sacrifices for that cause inspired her to write the novel Comrades. She has written two other novels, In Katutura and Mehmed and Razim, as well as numerous short stories.

Based abroad for a dozen years, in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Paris and Toronto, she reported for Newsday, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Los Angeles Times, Inter Press Service news agency and other news organizations. On returning to the United States, she worked at The Associated Press as an editor on the international desk and frequently as a reporter at The AP’s United Nations bureau.

She has been teaching for several years in two master’s programs at New York University. At the NYU Journalism Institute, she teaches international reporting. At the NYU Center for Global Affairs, she offers courses on refugees and internally displaced persons, democratic transitions, news media and international affairs, children and youth in the global context, African current affairs, and professional writing. She has led classes on trips to Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa and Ghana. She also is the founder of the website Civic Ideas, which publishes articles on efforts to solve public problems.