'Humpty Dumpty', Ahmed Kathrada, and the death of a conscience... Reading Race, Collecting Cultures - The Roving Reader Files

The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre is an open access University of Manchester facility. The Roving Reader Files category of blog posts is produced by Alison Newby (under the pseudonym The Roving Reader) in collaboration with Hannah Niblett (Collections Access Officer). The Roving Reader Files are designed as public engagement materials, the intention being to introduce research skills and terminology to the general user/reader in an entertaining yet informative manner by revealing hidden stories, making unusual connections and sharing insights into using the Centre's collection for research. The blog post ' 'Humpty Dumpty', Ahmed Kathrada, and the death of a conscience...' commemorates the life and contribution of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, who died aged 86 on 28 March 2017. Kathrada's name may not be as familiar as others in the struggle, but he had stood shoulder to shoulder with leaders such as Nelson Mandela right from the beginning in the 1940s, and was with him throughout his long incarceration. As a South African of Indian Muslim heritage, Kathrada's experience of apartheid differed from that of Black South Africans, and the post highlights his autobiography No Bread for Mandela. Memoir of Ahmed Kathrada. Prisoner No. 468/64 (published 2004), which is held by the Centre.