Comrade, scholar, cadre: A letter of respect to Sakhela Buhlungu

Molo Qabane (Dear Comrade)

Our first meeting took place at the Workers’ Museum and Library in Newtown in 2000. Together with other comrades, we were engaged in the struggle to defend and advance the history and heritage of the working class — a class that continues to be under sustained economic, political and social attack amid our present political disorder.

From the outset, I was drawn to your activism and scholarship. There was something familiar and grounding in your story ...