''Back in the Seventies and Eighties, old school friends and other whites of my acquaintance who were perturbed by my anti-apartheid activities would ask why I was 'giving my life up for the blacks'. I would explain that I wasn't doing what I was doing 'for the blacks', but for a society free of oppression and exploitation, and that was also concerned with the rights of women and children,'' writes Maurice Smithers.