Albie Sachs E-Mail Exchange: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Albie Sachs's E-Mail Chat with High School Students

E-mail exchange with Doug Woodbrowns's world history course at Marin Academy in San Rafael, California

April, 2000

UPBRINGING

"I took in their values from my infancy...."

How did your mother end up working for a black man and how was that allowed in an apartheid society?

Megan and Jessie

Did the fact that your mother, as a white woman, was working for a black man allow you to have the belief that abolishing the apartheid was possible?

Talia and Sophie

How was this image of courage within the individual as opposed to the militant courage developed for you? Who, if anyone, influenced you?

Talia and Sophie

My mother was a rebel. When she was at school she played a game called forfeits. If you lost, you had to do something demanded by the others. She lost and, although she was anti-monarchist, no, because she was anti monarchist, she was ordered to sing "God Save the King." Her response was to sing "God Save the King when we get hold of him."

My dad was a labor leader, and he too was a rebel. I took in their values from my infancy, not so much the direct political content, but the sense that you could do something about the world and didn't just have to conform to it.

When my mom worked as typist for Moses Kotani, it was there as something quite natural. He was a major political leader and she felt honored to be able to contribute to the struggle by working for him. What made it more special was that she had some years before taught him in a literacy class. His growth was living proof of the capacity of African working people to assume positions of leadership in society.