Will I love Helen Suzman?

Helen Suzman, a name well known in South Africa but not so familiar elsewhere, could teach politicians a thing or two, as I learned from her engrossing 2014 biography. For nearly fifteen years under South Africa’s abhorrent apartheid regime, Dr. Suzman was the single voice in South Africa’s parliament, speaking against 165 male members of the pro-apartheid government. She displayed courage and tenacity under impossible conditions. Nothing, it seemed, could ever overthrow this unfair and fully entrenched political system. Certainly not a solitary woman. But hold on, because conditions change, new leaders emerge, principles and courage occasionally win out.

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This is a heart-warming true story of the courage of one woman you have probably never heard of but you need to. A woman of great courage and integrity who took on the South African apartheid regime and for a while as a liberal was the only opposition member (and I think the only woman) in the racist all-white parliament. Some are naturally courageous, some have courage thrust upon them. Nelson Mandela and the ANC took on the racist regime from outside, Helen Suzman almost single-handedly took it on from within parliament. A real hero.