a nobel laureate wrote an introduction to his book about ruth first and joe slovo. on a personal note i was powerless to the know both joe and ruth and learn from them. i think that experience is one of the great enriching experience in of my time. another argument for why what charlayne hunter-gault says is so important. when we learn about other cultures and people we ourselves can grow culturally. having had the experience of visiting south africa many, many times, i have watched this history through my own eyes, not just the eyes of the media of which was later a part. pick up the story of ruth and joe and connected, if you would, to the madiba story. you have about ten minutes to win and we have to open it up. >> i intended to come and talk mostly about the word for nelson mandela was we usually rather than i because he knew he was a part of a struggle that included many other people. i was privileged to be able to write about to people close to him over the years. in connecting it to south africa and the u.s. -- we are pretty loose here we talk about it. it mad

ruth first and joe slovo were both students in johannesburg when madiba was a law student there and show was a law student, too. joe actually in 1961 and 62 was part of the legal team for madiba when madiba was sent to prison. and there was a connection also because they were all defendants in the treason trial in 1966. and that might have been part of the beginning stages of the cia trying to track nelson mandela when most everybody was acquitted. there was up party at the joe slovo house and madiba was smart enough not to go because he knew he had to get underground. one of the guests was this guy called milford shirley who was the cia agent who eventually gave the word to the south african security forces where they would find madiba a couple years later. but in terms of the armed struggle, and has since it was madiba who announced it. and in fact, it was ruth first who facilitated it being announced. you start to think of these connections. madiba was underground. ruth first was a radical journalist in south africa, and she set up an interview in the home of a professor because mande