A Life in Transition

The Open Society Institute hosted a conversation with Alex Boraine, author of A Life in Transition. The book is an insider's account of important institutions and events in South African history: the halls of parliament in the 1970s and 1980s, the controversial conference with the ANC in Dakar in 1987, and the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the mid-1990s.

Boraine gives insights into people he met along the way, including Harry Oppenheimer, Steve Biko, Van Zyl Slabbert, Thabo Mbeki and Desmond Tutu. He also takes us beyond South Africa to some of the world’s most turbulent trouble spots, from Serbia to Sierra Leone, Liberia to Sri Lanka.

Aryeh Neier, president of OSI, moderated the discussion.