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The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter, New Edition

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Albie Sachs has been an activist within the South African African National Congress (ANC) for most of his adult life and, for that very reason, the apartheid state sent someone to assassinate him in Mozambique in 1988. He survived but lost his right arm as a result of the attack. This book is a witty and moving account of his attempt to regain his health and take control of his life. He leads the reader through every little detail of his journey towards well-being and we feel (almost) as much a sense of achievement as he did when he learns to wipe his bum with his left hand for the first time. He explains the reasons why he decided not to use a prosthetic arm. He did not abandon his principles and was able to play a major role, as a lawyer, in the drafting of the post-apartheid constitution which is based upon 'democratic values, social juatice and fundamental human rights.' In the epilogue to the expanded 2011 version of the book, he explores the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and recounts his experience of being approached by a man who claimed to be part of the team that had been charged with assassinating him. This book succeeds in making the political events of South Africa at the end of apartheid very personal, as well as showing us why Sachs' own personal story is inescapably political.

An account of the attempt by the South African secret police on Albie Sachs' life while he was in exile in Maputo Mozambique during the 1980s.