In his autobiography, Franklin Sonn, struggle icon and former ambassador to America, tells of his years growing up in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape after being born in Vosburg in the Karoo in 1939. Franklin was, among other things, a teacher, school inspector, principal of the Spes Bona Secondary School in Athlone, rector of the then Skiereiland Technikon and president of the then Cape Teachers’ Professional Association (CTPA). He played a leading role against apartheid and in 1995 was appointed by President Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black ambassador to America. Franklin was the chancellor of the University of the Free State from 2002 to 2009 and has received more than a dozen honorary doctorates.