Quote by Alex La Guma: “Poverty is a crime against humanity.”

This powerful statement argues that extreme poverty is not merely unfortunate but a fundamental violation of human rights and dignity. It often arises from systemic injustices and exploitation, rather than individual failings, requiring collective action.

Amidst the global civil rights movements, La Guma's unwavering critique of apartheid linked racial segregation to economic exploitation, arguing that the resultant poverty was a deliberate and inhumane consequence of the system.

South African novelist and anti-apartheid activist whose fiction — including A Walk in the Night and In the Fog of the Seasons' End — documented life under apartheid with gritty realism. A member of the South African Communist Party, he lived in exile after being banned under apartheid law.