This collection of papers has been long in the making. Conceived in 2007 – following the workshop ‘The Multilingual Citizen: Towards a Politics of Language for Agency and Change’, hosted in Cape Town – it is finally seeing the light of day 10 years later. In addition to the delays that are inevitable when working with a numerous and diverse group of contributors around the globe, each with their own commitments – many regularly spending months incommunicado in the field – numerous significant events occurred in the years of the development of the volume, which contributed to its protracted evolution. To name just a few, roughly chronological: one of us had part of our house collapse, resulting in a computer crush and the consequent challenge of safe retrieval of the files of the volume from the drive; one of us relocated, changing continents and jobs; (the same) one of us became pregnant and had a baby; all three of us have held major administrative responsibilities at our respective institutions at some point, with one of us currently in full swing of her School headship; and most recently, one of us has been caught up in the violent, traumatic campus protests over university fees in South Africa. Still, we persevered. Working with this volume, we three editors in particular have regularly met at different venues in the world – Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, Mozambique, Sweden and the Netherlands – not only to deliberate on the progress of the volume, but also to enjoy what is now almost two decades of friendship and collegiality. The 10 years have seen us grow strong affective and academic ties built on the promise and aspiration, hope and belief that the book would one day see the light of day. Fortune favours the brave indeed: all contributors, authors and editors alike, are still alive and kicking, and able to reap the delights (and sweet nostalgia) of seeing the volume printed by Multilingual Matters.