Jonathan Ball

Book Review

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Published by Jonathan Ball

One of the more worrying features of the shaky era we are living in has been a rising tide of authoritarianism, accompanied, in some instances, by a resurrection of many old white supremacist tropes, which date back to Charles Darwin’s time. It was Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, who came up with the concept of eugenics, which popularised the view that races were real entities and that different races were unequal. His ideas gained widespread currency and were supported by many prominent figures, including Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Winston Churchill. On a more sinister note, they would also be latched onto by Hitler and the Nazis with their endless preoccupation with “the Jewish question”- how to rid Europe of the Jews – that led, ultimately, to the gas chambers.

The horrors of the Holocaust forced white supremacist ideas into retreat, but they didn’t disappear altogether. South Africa, for one, instituted its policy of apartheid that centred on its notions of separate racial cultures and separate racial frameworks. Behind all this was the belief that whites were inherently superior to blacks and should effectively control the reins of power. This line of reasoning led to the Group Areas Act, under which 3,5 million African and ‘Çoloured’ people were forcibly removed from their homes to make way for whites.

As usual, however, it is to America that we must turn for the big story about race and politics. Nowadays, geneticists say there is little scientific evidence to support theories of race difference. This hasn’t stopped them from finding a new protagonist in Donald Trump and his MAGA movement, whose obsession with refugees, immigrants and declining birth rates has seen the normalisation of what were once regarded as fringe views. Their fears about America being swamped by violent, criminal gangs and getting engulfed in ethnic conflict are, in turn, directly linked to populist Great Replacement thinking – the conspiracy narrative, first espoused by the French author Renaud Camus, that there is a secret plot, masterminded by some mysterious elite, to replace white populations in white-majority countries.

The growing influence of social media has led to a proliferation of alt-right sites and the widespread dissemination of their views, as well as the spreading of doomsday scenarios of a looming white genocide. (with some – including Donald Trump himself – pointing to what is allegedly happening in South Africa, even though these claims are not backed up by any solid evidence). Underlying a lot of it is a profound nastiness which has led, at the extreme end, to the emergence of lone white-male killers who hope that their violent actions will provoke civil war.

South African-born author, Gavin Evans, who grew up under the old National Party regime, with its policy of “separate development”, has made an in-depth study of this subject. In his eloquent, compelling and, at times, alarming book, he succeeds superbly in teasing out the links between the old ideas about eugenics and today’s Great Replacement theories. His conclusions are, by no means, all doom and gloom, however. Despite the growth of the alt-right, the frequency of race-motivated murders, the revival of race science and the election of right-wing politicians, research has shown that racial prejudice is, in fact, declining, especially where communities have become more integrated and people are exposed to other cultures, ideas and ways of life. There are still, however, powerful forces pushing the idea of “race realism”.

Topical, relevant and full of insights, White Supremacy deserves to be read by a wide audience.

published by Bloomsbury.

We live in an age of economic anxiety and instability. The cost of living continues to rise, real wages are in decline, and jobs are becoming increasingly scarce. Many people feel gloomy and fearful about the future. Trust is in deficit.

In this shrewd, thoughtful and hard-hitting polemic, author Ash Sarkar tackles the obvious question: how did we get here? Her essential conclusion is that we have allowed ourselves to become victims in a classic case of misdirection. Instead of confronting the big issue of our day – the unprecedented transfer of wealth from ordinary citizens and consumers to the very rich, the huge corporations and the oligarchs we have allowed ourselves to become sucked into a phony game of grievance politics. The whole concept of “culture wars” has been deliberately stoked to redirect attention away from the structural causes of our current economic hardships towards more nebulous feelings of cultural resentment. In this scenario, various minority groups are blamed for all the world’s ills.

An obvious example is the transgender issue, where the sexual leanings of a tiny minority of society are blown out of all proportion and presented as a form of contagion which will undermine the moral welfare of the majority. In a similar vein, we have the promotion of conspiracy theories, like the Great Replacement narrative – so popular amongst alt-right groups – which postulates that there is some sort of sinister plot to replace slow-breeding whites with immigrants from other racial groups.

Politicians like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage have become experts at whipping up fear and speculation and turning these once-fringe issues into mainstream ones. Other politicians have displayed a similar cynicism and hypocrisy. While professing concern for the poor, they are willing partners in a system that continues to enrich the extremely wealthy.

To an extent, the left has made it easier for them. Rather than looking at the larger issues facing society, they have become obsessed with policing what people say and whether it can be construed as an assault on someone’s personhood. Society has become divided into narrow subcultures, each defending its own turf. We have become mired in niche controversies.

At the other end of the spectrum, right-wing culture warriors seized on this to promote the vision of a ‘forgotten’ majority who have been socially gagged and culturally marginalised because of this focus on minority rights. As the author notes, the most trifling of conflicts get framed within much weightier battles of values, ideologies or identity positions with hundreds of talking heads pontificating about them”(she cites the case of Will Smith slapping the comedian Chris Rock)

Sarkar is a spry, pithy and impressively agile critic, and her well-argued book is very much a call to arms. While not suggesting that we ignore the injustices of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, her main point is that we need to be aware of the tectonic economic and geopolitical shifts that are taking place all around us. At a time when ordinary citizens struggle with financial, health and housing insecurity, a huge wealth grab is taking place right under our noses, which erodes our rights and threatens to impoverish us still further…

Book Reviews

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published by Jonathan Ball Publishers

At the time of South Africa’s independence, many observers were lulled into thinking that the ANC was committed to a free and open liberal democracy in which state power would be constrained and the government would be accountable to the individuals who voted it into office. Given the role the party had played in deliberations for South Africa’s much-lauded new constitution such optimism was, in the circumstances, perhaps understandable.

It was also, in the view of the author of this, at times, rather unsettling book, wrong. Far from embracing the neo-liberal narrative with its focus on individuals rather than classes and its built-in system of checks and balances, Jeffery maintains the ANC was only paying lip service to these ideals to buy itself time while it set about strengthening and consolidating its power. For them, the attainment of majority rule marked the first step in a zero-sum game aimed at extending government power and control over every aspect of South African life, while at the same time expanding dependence on the state. Egged on by their alliance party, the SACP, they have remained committed to their mission of “progressive transformation”, the goal of which is to turn South Africa from a capitalist into a socialist country and, ultimately, a communist one. The key to understanding all of this is spelt out in their ‘national democratic revolution’ (NDR) which displays a latent Marxist contempt for liberty and conveniently means that, once the ANC has won the battle of ideas, you won’t need other parties or an independent press because they will have become ideologically redundant.

Throughout the course of her book, Jeffery shows how many of these NDR ‘interventions’ have, in effect, already been implemented. Instrumental to it all, has been the ANC’s policy of cadre deployment – whereby people are promoted to important positions because of their ideological leanings and loyalty to the party rather than their competency, relevant qualifications or ability to perform the job. The effects of this policy, coupled with a now extensive patronage system, have become only too apparent – a bloated, dysfunctional bureaucracy, collapsing infrastructure (think Eskom, Transnet, SAA etc.) and an economy heading towards the edge of the fiscal cliff.

In spite of the negative impact on the country, the prospects of the party changing policy direction, at this stage, appear remote. Jeffery believes that those who hoped that Cyril Ramaphosa would introduce business-friendly reforms when he replaced Jacob Zuma as president of the country badly misjudged the man and that he, too, remains steadfastly committed to the NDR. She also argues that it is a misconception to think that there is a deep ideological divide within the ANC between the Ramaphosa faction and the Zuma RET one.

Jeffery, Head of Policy Research at the Institute of Race Relations, appears vastly well-informed on the subject. Her scholarly, well-paced and unblinkered analysis of our current situation serves as a timely reassessment of where we might be headed under ANC rule. Adding credence to her arguments is that much of her material is taken directly from the ANC’s and SACP’s policy documents and statements.

Published by Penguin Random House

South Africa is a country of great natural beauty with a rich, if turbulent, history. Needless to say, its landscape has evoked a variety of responses from a whole medley of writers. Wanting to taste their experiences, as well as see the land through the eyes of these writers, author Justin Fox decided to set off in the footsteps of some of the big guns of South African literature, exploring those parts of the country which the particular author’s name has become associated with.

Packed solid with vivid chapters and fascinating vignettes, the resultant book is very much a spirited celebration, an elegy to South Africa itself.

Fox’s quest begins, appropriately enough, in the Eastern Cape, the province which provided a home to one of the pioneering giants of South African literature – Olive Schreiner. Her book, The Story of African Farm, which manages to convey both the vastness and the special quality of the arid Karoo and the sense of solitude and insignificance which came from living in it, has gone on to assume the status of a South African classic.

A compilation of this nature could also, obviously, not overlook a writer of the stature of JM Coetzee, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and (twice) the Booker. Using his Life & Times of Michael K as a rough guide Fox undertakes an insightful and movingly described journey back to the farm in the Moordenaars Karoo where Coetzee spent part of his youth.

The other notable authors he includes in his survey are Herman Charles Bosman (the Groot Marico), Eugene Marais (Waterberg), Dalene Matthee (the Knysna forests), Zakes Mda (the Transkei), Sir Percy Fitzpatrick (of Jock of the Bushveld fame) and Deneys Reitz’s accounts of his experiences in the Cape interior during the Anglo-Boer War.

Fox who received his doctorate in English at Oxford and was a research fellow at the University of Cape Town, is an exceptional writer with an ability to draw readers into his experiences with the precision and exact observation of his prose. Wonderfully pictorial, his prose catches with sketch-like deftness the particular feel and spirit – the genii loci – of the places he visits. Like the authors he admires, his passion for the South African landscape shines through on every page.

There is a flip side to this, an emotional sub-text. Amid the beauty, Fox also finds a country beset with crime, corruption and vanishing services where the initial optimism engendered by Nelson Mandela’s release has long since faded, The rural areas have not escaped this spreading malaise and many modern writers also find themselves confronted with the same difficult question that so many other South Africans do – whether to leave or stay? The reactions among them have differed. Coetzee, whose writings have explored the themes of guilt and shame which come from living in a country with a history of apartheid, elected to immigrate to Australia. The poet Stephen Watson, on the other hand, found the thought of severing links with his beloved Cederberg too great an ask and stayed on (although he has since died).