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 Asmal’s personal journey. They are also the story of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to freedom and democracy, in which he played a significant role, as a member of the ANC’s Constitutional Committee and negotiating team and later as an MP and Cabinet minister under Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. They provide testimony, too, to Asmal’s lifelong dedication to freedom, equality and justice – ideals enshrined in the country’s Bill of Rights, which he played a major part in writing.

Native Life in South Africa is one of South Africa’s great political books. First published in 1916, it was first and foremost a response to the Native’s Land Act of 1913 and was written by one of the most gifted and influential writers and journalists of his generation. Native Life in South Africa provides an account of the origins of this crucially important piece of legislation and a devastating description of its immediate effects. Plaatje spent many weeks traveling in the countryside and the most moving chapters in the book tell us what he saw. His book explores the wider political and historical context that produced policies of the kind embodied in the Land Act, and documents meticulously steps taken by South Africa’s rulers to exclude black South Africans from the exercise of political power.