The biography of a politician who played a profound role in the history of the African National Congress, this account follows Kader Asmal from his beginnings as the son of a small-town shopkeeper in Natal through his exile in the UK and his rise to Cabinet minister under Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. Honoring 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—this memoir is also the story of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to freedom and democracy.