LOVE IN THE TIME OF TREASON, the life story of Ayesha Dawood

184pp., illus., paperback, Second Edition, No Place, (2008) 2021

This new edition includes 2pp. of new acknowledgements.

Ayesha Dawood (1927-2014) grew up in Worcester, where she became involved in local politics. She joined the ANC in 1953, and in 1956 was arrested and charged with high treason with 155 others in what became known as the Treason Trial. All the accused were acquitted. She married Yusuf Mukadam in 1961 after he had deserted from the Indian Navy and entered South Africa illegally. In 1967, Mukadam was arrested for being an illegal immigrant. The couple were deported to India after she refused to collaborate with the apartheid government in exchange for her husband’s being allowed to stay in South Africa. She spent 22 years in India, returning to South Africa in 1990.

"A superb portrayal of the life and times of an extraordinary figure and the emotions, colours, flavours and scents of two countries, India and South Africa, in a time of upheaval." Denis Goldberg, Rivonia trialist