Zackie Achmat is a pioneering South African organizer, journalist, educator, scholar, and filmmaker. As an Open Society Fellow, Achmat will write a memoir that draws on his varied and distinguished life as an activist, a life that encompasses many of modern South Africa's historic struggles, from the battle against apartheid to the campaign for gay and lesbian rights and for access to lifesaving pharmaceuticals for those with HIV/AIDS.

Achmat is the founder and former chair of the Treatment Action Campaign and the cofounder of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality. He is currently working to establish the Centre for Law and Social Justice in Cape Town. He has written numerous articles for the academic and popular press and has directed several documentary films, including the award-winning Apostles of Civilized Vice.

New York, NY; East Africa; South Africa  |  October 2009 - September 2010