Heart of Whiteness

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The willingness of Afrikaners to adapt to majority rule in South Africa is more pragmatic than moral, declare the authors, and this mosaic, including some 125 interviews, provides a textured sense of the thoughts and world of South Africa's once-ruling white tribe. The interviewees, ranging from professors to farmers to musicians, are hardly monolithic in outlook, debating even such fundamental questions as whether they are truly African. The authors concentrate on the Broederbond (the secret society dedicated to Afrikaner uplift and control); the Dutch Reformed church, with its too-slow move toward racial justice; the history and future of the Afrikaans language; and the legacy of the police state. Goodwin, former Africa correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, and husband Schiff, who teaches politics at Oberlin College, ultimately found ``seeds of peaceful change among Afrikaners but also deep roots of violence.'' However, because the reporting was conducted in 1992, this book is already slightly dated, saying little about the 1994 elections and the Mandela presidency. (Nov.)

Library Journal

Goodwin, a writer and former African correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, and husband Schiff (politics, Oberlin Coll.) interviewed over 125 Afrikaners in South Africa, selecting individuals from many political persuasions and from varying cultural and religious convictions. The overwhelming impression is one of great diversity within a group of people, the majority of whom still try to justify present and past apartheid beliefs. Two introductory sections are followed by detailed discussions of the Broederbond (the secret white male organization that ran the country under apartheid), religion, the Afrikaans language, and the police state. A brief conclusion reflects on the present situation and prospects for the future. Because of the need to condense so much material, it is often unclear when one individual's views are being reflected if not directly quoted, when the authors' views are being expressed, and when the transition to another's views is made. The result is a book that does not add significantly to our knowledge of Afrikaners. As the bibliography indicates, many monographs have been written about each major subject here and, indeed, about many of the individuals covered. Still, this book will interest scholars studying the birth of apartheid, the complicated cultural rationalizations that produced such strong convictions, and the effect of current changes on this racist ideology.-Maidel Cason, Univ. of Delaware Lib., Newark

Hazel Rochman

Apartheid is dead. How do the white Afrikaner nationalists see their place in a new South Africa under black majority rule? Why did they give up power? Is it a moral conversion or is it pragmatism? How much has really changed? Schiff and Goodwin spent eight months in 1992 trying to find the answers. They interviewed more than 125 Afrikaners about their history, politics, language, and religion and their secret ruling power group, the Broederbond (Brotherhood). Goodwin has reported on Africa for the "Christian Science Monitor"; Schiff, her husband, is professor of politics at Oberlin College. They weave their commentary and analysis together with the immediacy of their interviewees' own words. Of course, there's a range of viewpoints: longtime apartheid fighters, such as the Reverend Beyers Naude, as well as extremists who cling to a nationalism built on hate and inspired by Nazi ideology. The reporters reserve their most biting irony, however, for those who have undergone a "retroactive conversion," those who say they were always against the system, even while they ran the banks and the prisons.