My Traitor's Heart - Rian Malan

Aparteid, one of the most controversial laws ever passed in a country. A law design to keep black and white people apart indefinitely. To make room for white entrepreneur’s without fear of black competition. The ultimate aim of aparteid, to get the black people to leave South Africa and return to their homelands This book in a shocking depiction of the events that took place in South Africa from the early 70’s right through to the 90’s. It is written in an almost autobiographical sense, following the life of one Rian Malan, a direct descendant of Daniel Francois Malan (The first nationalist prime Minister in South Africa, and incidentally ...  Read the complete review

Apartheid seems like one of those black and white issues. Good blacks oppressed by bad whites. Clearcut. We like our causes to be like that. It's always been much easier to hold the high moral ground on what's happening in South Africa than on immigration for instance. South Africa was a great cause to rally around really - we had a whiter than white black hero, Nelson Mandela, and we had no end of horrific stories about the atrocities committed by the black-as-sin white police. We could condemn the apartheid state with righteous indignation and without any great effort. But how did we feel when we heard about all the violence between the black ...  Read the complete review