My biography tells much of my academic career and I do believe in the idea of an objective sociology. Nonetheless my life has been one of continuous political engagement. When I returned from service in the British Navy in 1946 I went up to Rhodes University where the President of the Students Union was Ian Smith later to become Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia. Smith had withdrawn Rhodes from the National Students because it had admitted non-White colleges.

I played a leading role in the campaign to get us back in and we won. On graduating I went to teach at Hope Fountain Mission School near Bulawayo and had intended to write an M.A. Thesis on the Bulawayo General Strike of 1946, but was suddenly told that I was “deemed undesirable as an inhabitant or visitor to Southern Rhodesia because of information received from another government” I returned to South Africa but applied for a passport to take up employment in Britain or the West Indies. I got this with some difficulty after being interviewed by a secret policeman through the intervention of a leading liberal figure Rheinalt Jones who had some influence in the Department of the Interior.

I obtained a job with the Extra-Mural Department of the University of Leeds through the support of my Professor in South Africa, James Irving who had himself had a similar post in Leeds. I taught classes of steelworkers, agricultural workers and coal miners and through them became strongly identified with the English working class. At the same time, however, I spent a lot of my time trying to help White Supremacy in South Africa from spreading to East and Central Africa. I did this by co-operating with Rev Michael Scott who had founded an organisation called the Africa Bureau which tried to provide a platform for Africa speakers. I arranged large meeting in Leeds for Tom Mboya, Joshua Nkomo, Kenneth Kaunda and many others. I had wanted to return to Africa to work but was prevented from doing so by the British Commonwealth Office. Through Michael Scott I did take part in a conference on Positive Action for Peace and Security in Africa chaired by Kwame Nkrumah. In the preparation for this conference I met Franz Fanon who was the Algerian FLN’s Ambassador to Ghana. I was greatly impressed by him and regard his Wretched of the Earth as one of the books which influenced me most.

In terms of British politics I took a very active part in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Left Clubs movement associated with the New Left Review. I always remained somewhat uneasy as a member of the British Left because of its failure to comprehend the nature of the freedom struggle of the African nationalist movements.

In England I was much concerned in the sixties with the fight against racial discrimination but came to see that important though this fight was, Black and Asian people in Britain had to be seen not simply as victims but in their own terms. This led me to be interested in the work of Asian Trades Unions and in Islam. Both of these interests suggested to me that the scope of my concern should be wider than Britain and this meant becoming involved in Europe and with Islam internationally. I very much liked the title of the Festschrift produced on the occasion of my 70 th birthday by my friend Herminio Martens/ He called it Knowledge and Passion, My most recent ideas on Multiculturalism Pluralism and Citizenship are reflected in a book which I joined Gurharpal Singh in editing called the Governance of Multicultural Societies.

One of my central convictions is that the South African system of White Supremacy under which people were judged and placed in society because of the colour of their skins but, in Martin Luther King’s words because of the “content of their characters” Yet the overthrow of White Supremacy does not mean that problems have ceased. There is still much inequality and oppression in the world, there are dangerous weapons available because of the arms trade and large parts of the world are being devastated by HIV/AIDS.

We have not reached the end of history. In Mozambique they used to say La Luto Continua” I agree.