Volume 21, Number 17 · October 31, 1974
Will South Africa Explode?
By George M. Fredrickson
No Neutral Ground
by Joel Carlson
Crowell, 372 pp., $8.95
Justice in South Africa
by Albie Sachs
University of California, 288 pp., $3.25 (paper)
Modernizing Racial Domination: The Dynamics of South African Politics
by Heribert Adam
University of California, 203 pp., $2.65 (paper)
A Taste of Power
by Peter Randall
The Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society (Johannesburg), 225 pp., £2
To visit South Africa in 1974 is a little like revisiting the American South before the civil rights movement. An early morning ritual captures some of the flavor of race relations: a black servant sweeps into your hotel room at 6:30 or 7:00, says 'good morning, bass' with an exaggerated cheerfulness that seems subtly aggressive, and deposits a tray of coffee and a morning paper beside your bed. If you want to take a bus somewhere after breakfast you will probably find yourself standing aside while a large number of 'nonwhites' queue up. In Cape Town, the double-decker buses often require the statutory 'nonwhites' (Africans, Coloureds, and Indians)[1] to ride on the upper deck; and it is not unusual for a bus to arrive full on the top and empty on the bottom. As a member of the privileged white caste you sit down among the vacant seats, leaving a crowd of black people waiting at the curb.
Review, 5150 words
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