Book Launch: Man On A Mission – Eddie Funde
Date: 27 June 2019
Time: 18:00
Venue: Future Nation Schools, Fleurhof campus (show map)
As a young boy growing up in Orlando East, Eddie never thought that he would spend most of his life in exile, away from his family and his people. As a teenager, Eddie was heavily immersed in the struggle against apartheid and consequently became an enemy of the state police. After getting a tip that the police were searching for him, Eddie was forced to hastily leave the country – unbeknown to him – he would only return 30 years later.
“It was a stressful journey. We were young, black and wanted. Even though South Africa was then a hostile place for us, we were leaving the only home we had ever known. But there was also a sense of anticipation and excitement. We felt part of something much larger than our individual selves. We were going to be involved in something that would change the course of history.”
This autobiography provides an interesting and informative account of Eddie Funde’s life and his contribution to the processes at home and abroad, which brought about the historically important transition from apartheid rule to a democratic order. It is a fascinating narrative of a journey travelled by one of our struggle fighters, commencing during the 1940s and ending at the beginning of the third decade of our democracy – a period of over fifty years. This includes his brief stay in Botswana, his struggle work in Zambia, his studies in Russia, his work as the Chief Representative of the African National Congress in the Australasian and Pacific region, his ambassadorship in Germany and the serious accident that saw him using a wheelchair and finally coming back home.