If every youth could be exposed to the type of programme offered by United World Colleges (UWC), the next century could become an era of great accomplishment, "the best we could ever imagine''.

S'Phiwe Dube, who graduated from UWC's Atlantic College in Wales this summer, says this is because they teach tolerance of other races, cultures, and creeds. He arrived here on his 18th birthday in July to pursue a two-year course at the Bermuda College.

Winning a place at UWC, which demands very high academic standards and is now established in countries around the world is, in itself, an accomplishment. In Mr. Dube's case, it was a near miracle. For he is a South African, who was born and grew up in a place whose name has become infamous around the world -- the Soweto Township.

Modest and humorous (he speaks nine languages), he says he was "fortunate'' to win a scholarship, and reacts to the suggestion that he must be `a man in a million', with a huge grin. "Well, there are six million people in Soweto alone, and only four scholarships awarded to South Africa each year, so I suppose you could say I am `one in three million'!'' Asked how he ended up in Bermuda, Mr. Dube says he was unable to obtain a scholarship to go on to university, as he had hoped. "I felt it would a step backwards to return to South Africa at this time. If I can finish my education, it would also benefit my country.'' Fortunately, a Bermudian friend was able to arrange for him to come here on a `Beyond Barriers' scholarship, formed by a coalition of local associations when apartheid finally ended in South Africa in 1993.

He says he finds his course at Bermuda College interesting, but is critical of the Island's library facilities. "I was thinking of writing a letter to the Editor of The Royal Gazette . I'm not very impressed with the Bermuda Library.

I think it should be combined with the College library. The public library is worse than the College -- they don't even keep copies of The Economist!'' On his future plans, he says: "I'm hoping I can save some money while I'm here, and maybe win a scholarship to a university in the US or Canada. I am happy here and to a certain degree, I feel at home, because the people are very welcoming -- like South Africa! It is also physically similar to Natal on the east coast.'' Mr. Dube notes that some people are surprised to learn that some areas of Soweto are luxurious. "We have our `Beverly Hills' area where all the doctors, lawyers and successful businessmen live. Then it progresses down from there to the slum people who live in corrugated iron sheds.'' He left Soweto (which means `southwest' of Johannesburg) in September 1993, during the transitional talks and when political violence was at its peak. He admits he was part of that violence. "When I was at school, we students had to go and find hostel dwellers, mainly immigrant workers, as it was thought they were government puppets who had been trained to act against the people.

If you didn't fight, you were regarded as a traitor, so you had to take part in these political activities whether you wanted to or not. I was quite a radical then. You should see the poems I used to write,'' he adds with a laugh. "If you saw what I wrote before and after I went away to school, you'd think they were written by two different people. Yes, I've calmed down now!'' Mr. Dube believes it was his poems that swung the UWC scholarship in his favour. "I showed them to the people who interviewed me and I told them, `See? That's what the South African regime has done to me -- so you'd better expose me to other cultures so that I can work towards a more fruitful future for my country! All I can write about right now is violence and suffering!' Anyway, it must have worked because they gave me the scholarship.'' Describing South Africa now as a place full of hope, he cautions about its future. "There are still a lot of things that have to be addressed. I think a lot of people were tempted to run away, but Mandela is a very good leader and assured them he would work toward a democratic future, and to believe in him.

So there was this amazing feeling of goodwill -- after all, if you could change someone who felt like I did...One of the dangers is that maybe people expect too much too soon. He's controlled things far better than most people thought he would, but people who were revolutionary won't be patient for ever.'' At the moment, he says, tribal and criminal violence is probably the biggest problem facing the new democracy. "I would never walk alone in Soweto, even though I was born there. People have experienced so much violence, they have become desensitised. Sometimes you feel people are fortunate to even reach the age of 18. If I hear guns going off in South Africa, it is part of the norm that I've grown up with.'' Eventually, however, he says he would like to return home.

"I'd like to establish some sort of community that would help people to develop themselves. They feel they have no potential, but their culture is much richer than they realise. It wasn't until I went to Britain that I began to appreciate my own culture, but I'd been biased by what I'd been led to believe. So I would like to spend some time there and help people. I know,'' he adds, "that every youth dreams of changing the world but, deep inside, I know this is something I could help to achieve.'' Mr. Dube's future career plans come as something of a surprise for someone who spends much of his time writing poems, prose and even plays that have a decided political bent.

"I want to be an industrial pharmacist. I have diabetes, but I feel the reason is that it was God's way of setting me on the road to finding a cure. I am insulin-dependent but I take good care of myself and I take a positive attitude towards it. People get these things,'' he adds with a philosophical shrug. "It could be worse -- some people have AIDS. I want to write a play about diabetes one of these days. I've just finished a play about the violence in South Africa and maybe some time, I will get it produced.'' Asked if he misses his mother, with whom he lives in South Africa, he replies: "Yes, I'm very close to her. She wanted to pursue a career in medicine but in the uprisings of the '70s, that wasn't possible. I come from a poor family, but she is very proud of me. It's sad for her to have me away for so long, but she's happy that I'm getting a good education.'' He reveals that his family has a history of traditional healing ("not witch-doctors!''), but through the use of natural herbs. "My great-grandmother was a healer and passed this gift on to my mother, through all our ancestors. My mother had a dream that I would be the next in line but she didn't want that to happen. She feels freer since she started going to church, because being a traditional healer is a big responsibility -- if the cures don't work they think she's no good, or a witch, and `boom-boom' she's dead! So I think maybe that's where I get my love of chemistry -- an old idea but with a modern approach. So she doesn't cry too much, because she knows it will be good in the end.'' Asked for his views on racism in Bermuda, he says: "I think it's swept under the carpet here. It's not like other places, it's more subtle and it runs both ways -- white on black, and black on white. I haven't seen what I'd consider to be political activists here -- I'm used to this on a very large scale. I just see trouble-makers who keep saying this and that is wrong, but they have no ideas on how to change anything.'' Mr. Dube says that in the UK, he found that people tended to be patronising.

"There were even some instances of racism, but I ignored it because if you react, it only perpetuates it. Education is the most beneficial tool. When I went for my interview, I was asked how, if I were Minister of Education, I would handle culture -- would I take away Shakespeare, and so on. So I said, `Of course not, but I would like to add other books as well.' That's why I think South Africa is so beautiful. Even the weather is diverse! And we have all sorts of races -- Asians, mixed races, blacks from 11 different races, whites from Boers to Portuguese -- most of whom the government were trying to lock out. But after the rain, the sun comes out and we see a beautiful rainbow of different colours, and we see the beauty of diversity. When people come together, it brings out the beauty in people. We have to build a tolerant world with true international understanding. It sounds idealistic but it could happen and the world would be a much better place.'' Most of all, though, S'Phiwe Dube, believes that laughter is indispensable in that process. "If people can laugh together, it creates an atmosphere for free discussion and helps to break the ice and exchange ideas -- and that's what democracy is all about.''