It is late afternoon at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). The door to Professor Fiona Anciano’s office stands half-open, her face illuminated by the glow of yet another online meeting. She looks up, smiles gently, and whispers: “Just two more minutes.” Moments later, she appears with a plate of biscuits and an apologetic grin.

It also happens to be her birthday – a day she has spent not celebrating, but in service to her colleagues and students. That quiet act of selflessness is telling. For Prof Anciano, optimism, teaching and research are never centred on herself alone; they are rooted in the communities she serves and the democratic ideals she champions. In a few days, she will deliver her inaugural lecture, a significant milestone in an academic’s career, celebrating their formal appointment to full professorship at the University.

Born in Johannesburg, she grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a time of protest and transition. She recalls the release of Nelson Mandela, the tense national debates, and the optimism of a young democracy. For her, politics was never abstract. It was immediate, tangible, and deeply personal – something that shaped whether communities could belong, whether voices could be heard, and whether justice could prevail.

Her childhood, though mostly happy, was not without challenges. At ten, while racing her sister back to the house after trout fishing, she ran headlong into a glass door, leaving her with 100 stitches. “I was covered in blood and taken straight to Joburg General Hospital. It was traumatic. I got a stomach ulcer, couldn’t play sports, and had to take time off school. I was just a little girl, and it was hard.”

The academic’s journey into politics and academia was also shaped by chance. She enrolled to study law at the University of Pietermaritzburg, now the University of KwaZulu-Natal, mainly because her sister had gone there. 

“I was meant to go to UCT for business science, but I had no interest in business. I actually fell in love with politics by accident,” she said, recalling how attending a lecture with a friend during a free period sparked her fascination. That unexpected encounter with politics became a lifelong passion, guiding her career and shaping her identity.

After completing her honours degree, she moved to London. She arrived on a freezing February morning with little money, few warm clothes, and no familiar support.

“It was lonely… I just had nothing.” Her mother’s insistence that she learn touch-typing proved crucial. Within days, she had secured secretarial work and was beginning to navigate life in a new country. Travel became her refuge. “I absolutely love travelling. If I could, I’d travel all the time. Since I was a little girl, I just wanted to see the world.”

Her persistence and talent paid off when she earned a full scholarship to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She also had an offer from Cambridge, but turned it down because it did not provide funding. “I could live more comfortably as I had funding for my degrees. That’s what made it possible. ” 

By 2008, after completing her PhD, meeting her husband, and falling pregnant with her first child, Prof. Anciano was determined to return to South Africa. “I was very adamant. I’m going home. I want to raise my child in South Africa. I am South African. I don’t want to live anywhere else, it’s just who I am.” Her decision was rooted in a deep sense of place and responsibility, an understanding that her story, like her country’s, is tied to history, identity and belonging.

Her love for UWC is profound. When asked why she chose the University, she paused, looked down, and her eyes welled up. “I don’t know why I’m feeling tearful… but I felt like I found home. I’m not actually sad, I’m happy. Because I shouldn’t love this university as much as I do.”

Having spent years researching race and non-racialism at a think tank in Johannesburg, she initially wondered if she was the right person for the role, particularly with the maiden surname of White. “My name was literally Fiona A. White. I thought, ‘You’re really hiring the wrong person.’ But they told me, ‘We need you. We need someone who asks that exact question.’ And when I arrived, the values of UWC, its culture, its people, it was such a welcoming space.”

On 4 September 2025, she will deliver her inaugural lecture, titled “Beyond the Ballot: Rethinking Urban Governance in the Shadows of Democracy.” The lecture explores how urban governance functions in reality, who holds influence, who is excluded, and how citizens navigate systems that often feel distant from their everyday lives. For Prof Anciano, these questions are not abstract. They go to the heart of South Africa’s democratic journey, revealing the tension between a society proud of its democratic foundations and one increasingly disconnected from the outcomes of formal processes.

Today, the mother of two and wife balances her academic work with family life, raising children who are forging their own paths, one drawn to astrophysics, another to art and international travel.

“I don’t care where I live once retired, I just need enough for a plane ticket to wherever my children are.”

Whether in a lecture hall, an online meeting, or over a plate of biscuits on her birthday, Prof Anciano embodies a commitment that is both professional and deeply personal. She has dedicated her life to understanding and strengthening democracy, not just as a concept, but as something lived and contested every day.

As she prepares to step onto the stage for her inaugural lecture, she carries with her the weight of history, the urgency of the present, and the hope of finding new pathways for a democracy that truly belongs to all its people.

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