Comrades

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.