“Everyone has a story”, Sephiwe, the librarian at the Robben Island Mayibuye Archive, said to me as he handed me the newspaper file I needed. He was looking at my greying hair and the creases under my eyes, and said quietly, “It’s been a long journey!” He was right! The journey I describe is both personal and political. The politics referred to is not about the science and art of government, but more often about the tensions between principles and political practice. At its core is a lifetime’s struggle with commitment, identity, choice and rejection.
