Review by Choice Review
Le May's survey of Afrikaner political history attempts to "explain the genesis, aims, struggles and strategies of a complex and often divided people" in South Africa. Le May offers little in the way of social history or the vivid character sketches one may find in David Harrison's The White Tribe of Africa (CH, Nov'82) or Marq De Villiers's White Tribe Dreaming (CH, Nov'88), and uses demeaning terms like "Natives" and "Hottentots," ostensibly to avoid anachronism. Nonetheless, Le May's scholarship is sound. He explores the key events in Afrikaner historical mythology, from Slagtersnek to the martyrdom of Jopie Fourie, and analyzes transformations in Afrikaner politics from Kruger's republic to the last days of apartheid. One of Le May's major themes is the ongoing tension in Afrikaner political history between independence and survival, a conflict that has manifested itself in broedertwis or "strife between brothers." Twice in the 20th century (1902 and 1990) Afrikaner politicians have been chosen to abandon independence as the best means of survival, most recently by "voting themselves out of power and submitting themselves to the uncertainties of democracy in a multiracial society." For general readers as well as specialists. All levels. J. O. Gump University of San Diego
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
