YOUNG LIONS OF LENZ, Lenasia Youth League (1982-1991)

88pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Lenasia, 2022

“The formation of the Lenasia Youth League (LYL) constituted the necessary bridge between the earlier generation of Congress activists and leaders, who had spent time on Robben Island, and the new cohort of comrade in the 1980s, who were prepared to take the struggle against apartheid to higher levels. In the activities of the LYL, we can see a community in action, taking up various grassroots issues and linking them with wider struggles at national level. In these young activists, one could feel the tempo, the vibrancy and the steadfastness of a community refusing to be defined by apartheid and yearning to be part of an emerging non-racial, non-sexist and united South Africa. Vadi's approach in telling this fascinating story is remarkable in that he allows the participants to tell their stories - thus giving them voice and agency. In doing so he is inviting us not only to look at the past but setting the tone for a national conversation about the South Africa we want.” Mandla Nkomfe, former leader of the Soweto Youth Congress and Gauteng MEC for Finance, from his foreword.

Lenasia is a suburb south of Soweto originally created by the apartheid government for people classified as Indian.

Dr Ismail Vadi was a founder member of the Lenasia Youth League. He was elected an ANC Member of Parliament in 1994. Currently he is Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg and an Adjunct Faculty at the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria.