Doctor’s colourful life detailed in memoir
Dr Errol Holland's memoir, A Life of Colour: a South African doctor's pursuit of integrity, is on Thursday at Ike's Books.
THE launch of Dr Errol Holland’s memoir, A Life of Colour: a South African doctor’s pursuit of integrity, is on Thursday, 14 February at 5.30pm for 6 pm at Ike’s Books, 48A Florida Road.
The book was compiled by David Robbins, who at the time was editor of the Limpopo Leader, the University of Limpopo’s flagship publication. Dr Errol Holland will be in conversation with Ashwin Desai at the launch.
Errol Holland grew up in Coronationville, a Coloured township in Johannesburg in the 1940s. As a child he witnessed the destruction of Sophiatown and as a young medical student in Cape Town he saw a similar destruction in District Six. In June 1976, as registrar physician at Baragwanath, he assisted with the influx of school pupils needing treatment, after being shot by police on 16 June. He faced apartheid first-hand as he matured into a timeless political activist and brilliant specialist haemotologist.
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Born in 1948, coincidentally the birth date of the Nats and apartheid, Errol Holland was destined to be an anti-apartheid activist from cradle to consulting room, armed only with a stethoscope.
Holland took up a fellowship in haemotology at Georgetown University, USA in 1981, joining in protest marches alongside singer Harry Balefonte and actor Paul Newman. In 11 February 1990, with his wife Zaiboon, he joined hundreds of others very early in the morning at Victor Verster Prison to witness Mandela’s release. He retired in 2016 and started his memoir through to 2017.
“When reading Dr Errol Holland’s memoir you hear the voice of Mac Carim in Coolie Come out and Fight, Chris van Wyk in Shirley Goodness and Mercy, Ronnie Kasrils in A Simple Man and Ben Turok in With my Head above the Parapet. We hope you can join us to hear about the colourful life of Dr Holland and meet his wife Zaiboon at Ike’s,” said Cedric Sissing from Adams Booksellers.
RSVP to Cedric on 082 873 2702 or cedricatadams@gmail.com.
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