Politics In My Blood - A Memoir (Paperback) Kader Asmal, Adrian Hadland, Moira Levy

Politics In My Blood - A Memoir (Paperback)  Kader Asmal, Adrian Hadland, Moira Levy

Kader Asmal was one of the most respected senior statesmen in South Africa. He lived a rich and varied life, in all the twists and turns of which he has displayed boundless energy, a sharp mind and deep commitment to human rights and democratic values.

Kader Asmal, lawyer and teacher, South African Cabinet minister, and the driving force behind the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, has been called many things small, bustling, curious, courageous, indefatigable (Irish Times) and dapper, combative, witty, cantankerous, sarcastic, urbane, precisely spoken (Sunday Times). The son of a small-town shopkeeper from Natal, his life took him as far as exile in the UK, on to a senior position at Trinity College Dublin, and back to a free South Africa, governed by an exemplary Constitution, which he helped devise.

These memoirs are not only Asmals personal journey. They are also the story of South Africas transition from apartheid to freedom and democracy, in which he played a significant role, as a member of the ANCs Constitutional Committee and negotiating team and later as an MP and Cabinet minister under Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. They provide testimony, too, to Asmals lifelong dedication to freedom, equality and justice ideals enshrined in the countrys Bill of Rights, which he played a major part in writing.