SEMI-CONSCIOUS LIBERATION ORGANIZATION
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A native of South Africa, Alexandra Stein grew up in London after her parents went into exile. As the child of “fellow travelers,” Stein was taught to hate Apartheid, and leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) were frequent guests in her parents’ home:
“A lot of their friends were very active, and ended up being leadership within the ANC and the South African Communist Party -and finally the government.” Stein says that her parents had engaged in some minor acts of disobedience prior to emigrating, “but part of the reason why they left South Africa was because they didn’t want to make that commitment.”
That commitment had already landed Nelson Mandela in prison, where he was serving a life sentence on Robben Island. Though not prepared to go to jail, Stein’s parents continued to support the anti-Apartheid movement from abroad, holding fundraisers at their house and helping to resettle other South African exiles.
Growing up in the exile community, Stein was exposed to violence at an early age. Her best friend’s mother had been assassinated by the South African government, killed by a letter bomb sent to her offices at the university.
Stein’s family also had a history of mental illness: her older sister Hatty suffered from bipolar disorder. As a teenager, she recalls watching as her mother wrestled Hatty to the ground to force-feed her barbiturates. Stein’s parents would later divorce, with her father taking up with his longtime mistress. Her mother Jenny and her brother Jeremy both went mad in 1980.
“My family was pretty dysfunctional,” says Stein. “Half of us are the ‘sane half,’ and I like to put myself in that half. Some people might dispute that... It was just a lot of crisis with my older sister being very, very crazy, and no one knowing how to manage her.”
At the age of 15, Alexandra Stein ran away from home –never to return. She hated her upper class prep school, hated the screaming and the lack of emotional support at home, and was afraid of her best friend’s new boyfriend: an Irishman who had introduced the friend to heroin and speed.
“ I met this lovely, handsome Frenchman, who sort of looked after me,” says Stein. “And I ran away to live with him in France.”
Running away from home may have saved her the drug route she says. “I didn’t have too many routes that were looking that good to me. So I picked the one with the Frenchman.
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