'The temerity of writing one's biography needs to be explained. It is a foolish act by any description. Why make oneself so vulnerable?


I have reasons to tell my story. It is a story of loss, and storytelling is part of the struggle to transcend loss. It is also imperative in our deeply wounded society. The past cannot be undone: it has to be transcended.'


When Mamphela Ramphele was born in a rural village in Limpopo, few would have predicted that she would become not only a medical doctor, but an acclaimed author, academic and business leader, prominent in two political movements: Black Consciousness in the 1970s and Agang SA in 2013. This book charts the incredible story of a woman who, despite detention, banishment, and the loss of the father of her unborn child to police torture, never gave up expanding the bounds of the possible.

'The temerity of writing one's biography needs to be explained. It is a foolish act by any description. Why make oneself so vulnerable? I have reasons to tell my story. It is a story of loss, and storytelling is part of the struggle to transcend loss. It is also imperative in our deeply wounded society. The past cannot be undone: it has to be transcended.' When Mamphela Ramphele was born in a rural village in Limpopo, few would have predicted that she would become not only a medical doctor, but an acclaimed author, academic and business leader, prominent in two political movements: Black Consciousness in the 1970s and Agang SA in 2013. This book charts the incredible story of a woman who, despite detention, banishment, and the loss of the father of her unborn child to police torture, never gave up expanding the bounds of the possible.