The publication of Andrew Mlangeni's biography could not have come at a more opportune moment in the historical process. Aptly titled ‘The Backroom Boy: Andrew Mlangeni's Story’, this book shares with the reader the value of making a contribution to a people's cause in a classically selfless fashion, without seeking the glory of limelight attendant to leadership positions. As post-apartheid South Africa evolves in both intended and unintended ways there is much in the process that warrants looking back to analogous moments in history.

Such an exercise is not only valuable in enabling us to avoid repeating mistakes of the past but serves to deepen our understanding of the possibilities of our human agency as individuals and at a collective level. Thus we get to understand that although thrown into historically given circumstances, we equally have the inherent power to change matters, to throw down the gauntlet to destiny in whatever ways are humanly possible.

This makes sharing the lesson-laden, politically-charged life of figures such as Om Andrew (all elderly stalwarts of the struggle are affectionately called ‘Oom’, uncle, ‘Om’ for short) all the more necessary, if not indispensable. After the publication of the biographies of Om Andrew's contemporaries Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Dennis Goldberg, Mike Dingake and others who have, incidentally, influenced his political development, it is only legitimate to expect Om Andrew to also claim his place in the exalted genre of South Africa's expanding political biography. This amounts to the writing of history, our history, by documenting the lives of the leading individuals during the freedom struggle. It does not mean that history is the product of individual genius or of sacrifice alone. On the contrary, it affirms the importance of individuals within the tapestry of collective human reaction to a given historical situation. Like those of each of his contemporaries, Om Andrew's life is but one of the numerous strands woven into the South African historical narrative.

Through reading a book such as Om Andrew's biography we appreciate that, now and again, nations fall into a sore need for some hard-nosed historical lessons as they try to pull through strangulating challenges thrown up by periods of sociopolitical misfortune. In South Africa's case where else to turn but the glorious history of the struggle for justice and equality whose mobilising philosophy constitutes the framework of our shared vision today?