When Alex La Guma, the activist and famed writer of A Walk in the Night (1962), went into exile in 1966, he left South Africa and his cherished birthplace of District Six never to return. Unlike many of his peers, he never had a chance to come home and witness the long-awaited transition to democracy.
Instead, he died unexpectedly of a heart attack in Havana, Cuba, in 1985 during the liberation struggle, having committed himself fully to writing and diplomacy for the ANC and the…