In memory of Belinda Bozzoli

Abstract

Thirty-six years ago, as a PhD student in the Wits Sociology Department, I was assigned to tutor students on a course taught by Belinda Bozzoli. I attended her lectures, and they were to prove one of the crucial intellectual experiences of my life. Teaching with the kind of dash, colour and flair more normally associated with the theatre than the classroom, Bozzoli provided what felt like a complete education in South African history and social science. She gave me things to think about, which have continued to shape my academic work to this day. That was the moment when I got to know one of the most extraordinary people amongst a great generation of socially and politically engaged South African academics.