This is the story of brown South Africans as experienced in the Western Cape village of Stellenbosch. From its beginning years burghers, slaves and a small number of free blacks built up Stellenbosch together. Even before 1700 they also jointly created a new language, Afrikaans. It is not far-fetched to see Stellenbosch as the cradle of practises which later became known as apartheid. With this book, which first appeared in Afrikaans in 2007 under the title Nog altyd hier gewees, Hermann Giliomee has created a fascinating picture of our joint past. Slavery and suppression, the scandalous battle of Andringa Street and removal of brown people from Stellenbosch under apartheid laws, are scrutinised in detail. With the arrival of the new demo-cracy in 1994 white, brown and black again became part of one village, although much of the pain of the past remains.