Slumboy from the Golden City

Paul Joseph grew up in the 1930s South Africa. He awoke to political activism as an Indian in the racially segregated schools and slums of Johannesburg, and aged just 15, committed himself to fight oppression. He participated in ANC political campaigns from the passive resistance of the 1940s - inspired by Gandhi - through to the armed struggle adopted by the ANC in the 1960s. He was arrested and banned several times and, in 1956, was one of the 156 people accused of high treason by the Apartheid government - alongside Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Lilian Ngoyi, Ruth First and Helen Joseph. Paul Joseph was held in detention following the Sharpeville Massacre, the banning of the ANC and the imposition of the state of emergency. One of the first recruits of UmKhonto We Sizwe (spear of the nation) - the armed wing of the ANC - he was put under house arrest and then solitary confinement in the Johannesburg prison known as The Fort. Later he had to flee the country. His story shows how the political and personal aspects of his life were intertwined. He shares the impact of his political actions on the lives of those closest to him, in South Africa and in political asylum in London. With an eye for detail and extensive knowledge of South Africans across the racial and class divides, Paul documents social and political issues in one of the most significant liberation struggles of the 20th century. See more