[Perspectives] Zackie Achmat: irrepressible health activist
Books are fundamental to Zackie Achmat's life. The health and political activist whose name is synonymous with civil disobedience and who helped lead the mass protests that won access to affordable antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the people living with HIV in Africa, cannot wake up or go to bed without reading. He reads widely: poetry and novels, philosophy, history, and economics. Slipping in and out of consciousness after a heart attack in 2005, he begged for his volume of Pablo Neruda's poems to be taken with him to the hospital.
Books are fundamental to Zackie Achmat's life. The health and political activist whose name is synonymous with civil disobedience and who helped lead the mass protests that won access to affordable antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the people living with HIV in Africa, cannot wake up or go to bed without reading. He reads widely: poetry and novels, philosophy, history, and economics. Slipping in and out of consciousness after a heart attack in 2005, he begged for his volume of Pablo Neruda's poems to be taken with him to the hospital.
