THE FUSE

For a banned person, even a glass of wine could become evidence. One evening in Cape Town, Sheila Barsel was at home with two friends, Michael Smith and the poet Steven Watson, remembering a friend who had been killed. The security police were keeping an eye on her, as they did on other opponents of apartheid, and she knew that an unexpected visitor could turn an ordinary evening into an interrogation. There was a small precaution to observe: if someone knocked, the person answering the door should hold a glass, making it appear that no more than two people were gathered inside.