When I arrived at the University of Zululand, popularly known as Ongoye (or Ngoye) University, in 1982, I was feeling proud of myself because although I was an older student – having already completed a four-year General Nursing and Midwifery Diploma at Edendale College – I was choosing education instead of a salaried nursing job. The excitement of being a full-time student suggested unending possibilities for me. In 1984 when I was expelled and I left the university without having completed my degree, I was even prouder of myself than when I started, but the reason was different – I had stood up for what I believed was right; I had followed my conscience – my political conscience.

In order to better understand what happened in Ongoye in the early 1980s it becomes important to look at the broader geographical area and understand its politics. As students at the university we were not immune to the influences of our surroundings. We analysed them, reacted and actively responded to them and in turn also contributed to them by creating what we believed was right. As students at the university we also all had our individual pasts. Pasts that had moulded us as groups and as individuals in one way or the other. Pasts we had moulded in individual and collective chosen ways.

So who was I politically? What had influenced me before going to Ongoye University that made me choose to be a student activist? The politics of Natal (now KwaZulu- Natal) – where I was born and bred – has had a long history, but I will focus only on the period that shaped me. Put differently, what I allowed to shape me.