My fellowship at Yale came to an end in June 1975. I tried to find a university position in the US because I believed that, despite my improved academic qualifications, employment in the university sector back home would still be difficult to find.

The US had experienced a deep economic downturn between 1974 and 1975 and universities were forced to cut down on their recruitment of staff. Nonetheless, my postdoctoral qualification from Yale ensured that I often found myself shortlisted for the academic positions I applied for. Ironically, the biggest obstacle in my way was the fact that the US government had initiated a quota system in favour of African Americans, particularly women. To my surprise, I, a black man, found myself entangled in the US affirmative-action quota system. Sadly, there was no easy way out of it. Having undergone a three-day interview for an assistant professorship at New York University, for instance, and ending up as one of the top contenders for the position, I was defeated by a female African American psychologist with a higher numerical affirmative-action rating.

The university's dilemma was graciously explained to me and, to some extent, I admired the degree of openness shown by the university authorities. Rational as the explanation was, it failed to assuage the feeling of victimisation I nursed as a black South African. It was as if leaving apartheid behind back home had not helped because there I was, in the US, caught up in the patchwork solutions to the black-white problem that Americans had put in place for their own purposes. I can recall how the yearning to return home to work among my own people at the earliest opportunity started to nag at me.

Soon after the New York University disappointment I attended another interview at the University of Texas in Houston. Houston was not a dream location, even for someone as desperate as I was at the time. During the course of my stay for the interview, I sensed that the cultural ambience at the university was very different from what I was accustomed to on the East Coast of the US. However, after a series of interviews, the university offered me a position as an assistant professor of psychology. The offer included a provision for one day of private practice per week.