Sindiwe Magona delivered ‘Address at the Funeral of a Young Woman’ – one of the essays in this section – as a speech some years ago at the funeral of a family friend who had died of Aids. It examines the causes of the spread of the virus in South Africa and the impact it had on daily life. The other three essays are newly written pieces that capture Magona's impassioned views on other issues of paramount importance in the current climate: the ever-increasing problem of poverty; the decreasing value assigned to mother tongue; and persistent manifestations of racial tensions within the country. These essays demonstrate Magona's tenacity in addressing these problems head-on and in upending the assumptions that tend to dominate the discourse surrounding these topics.