ABSTRACT
Essop Patel was born in Germiston, South Africa, in 1943. His grandfather came from India to South Africa when he was thirteen. His schooling started in a racially mixed location known as “Jamtown” that was later destroyed. At the age of nine, Patel witnessed a defiance campaign against this destruction that caused him to become politicized. In high school Patel recognized that racial hierarchy was a construct that he could not escape in South Africa. In 1962 he went to England, where he stayed for eleven years. During this period he first worked in different jobs in London before he finally took an honors degree in law. In London he came to know people from different parts of the world and had contact with South African exiles, among them Nat Nakasa. After returning to South Africa in 1973, Patel took a postgraduate degree at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is now a practicing advocate in Johannesburg. He is married and has two children.
