Behind the Settler Curtain

...Behind the Settler Curtain Modernizing Racial Domination: The Dynamics of South African Politics By Heitbeit Adam California 203 pp $8 00 Reviewed by Russell Warren Howe Africa bureau chief, Baltimore Sun RECENTLY, THE tide of world events seems to have turned against the white-separatist regime of South Africa The International Court of Justice at The Hague has rejected Pretoria's claim to South-West Africa (Namibia), China has reasserted itself as the Third World's main source of active revolutionary support, President Nixon has begun the demonetization of gold Within South Africa itself, black power has come out mto the open In an unprecedented show of intercaste solidarity, Asians and Eurafncans now join native Africans in cheering against their country's all-white teams at international soccer matches The combination of increased pressure from abroad and emerging black consciousness at home could loosen the white minor-ity's hold on the government Henbert Adam, a German sociologist, is manied to a member of one self-segregating, largely ethnocentric and underprivileged caste m South Africa—the Asians—and this seems to have given him an impressively detached view of apartheid It is the coercion and the deceit rather than the principle of racial separation that he opposes He points out, for example, that Indians would be satisfied to live segregated lives on Durban's Nob Hill instead of in the Asian ghetto Modernizing Racial Domination provides a full account of the crucial injustices of apartheid No "non-white" (a mind-boggling euphemism, like calling a born citizen a "nonforeigner") can have authority ovei whites, except in some church hierarchies More importantly, "no member of the [white] ruling group can descend to an unprivileged stratum, regardless of his capacities" The dependence of white South Africans on special pnvdege underlies their fear of television, with its news and images of the normal world outside, as well as the official suppression of black writing White supremacy is maintained through brutal repression 600 non-whites are arrested and sentenced to prison daily in Johannesburg alone for not carrying identity documents All opposition is prosecuted under an act prohibiting "Communism"?a policy that, ironically, has enhanced the status of the South African Communist party Adam describes the fierce horror of the mining barracks, where blacks earn one-twentieth the wages paid white men (the gap is widening), and he shows that most black city dwellers subsist below the official poverty level In the urban "locations" for black workers from the countryside (their families must stay behind in the reserve for the first 10 years), homosexuality and violent crime are rampant South Africa's prison population has tripled in the last 15 years, and the nation accounts for 47 per cent of the world's annual executions Yet laborers continue to come from the neighboring states, as the Irish come to England, to earn some money in hell and go home For relief, there is kaffir beer, dagga (pot), prostitution, and religion—not traditional Christianity, since it has acquired a deceitful ring in South Africa, but a galaxy of syncretic sects The government's justification for apartheid has changed fiom "superiority" to "difference," but the cultural diversity which that implies has been largely erased by urbanization Even so, Adam argues that the theory of heterogeneity cannot be called fascist, despite the Nazi background of the National party and the jail terms served by Premier Balthazar J Vorster and others (Adam errs in ascribing their arrest to the British The honor belongs to Jan Smuts ) He proposes that trying to preserve ethnocentncity is more democratic than the cultural imperialism of the French, who insist on judging modern Africans by the values of Europe It is a moot pomt The French imposed the current dictatorships of corrupted men who have lost their roots, the South Africans pay drunken and illiterate village chiefs to preserve the despotic world of precolomal times Adam rightly contends that the establishment of the bantustans?semiautonomous client states inside South Africa, virtual game parks for human beings—has permitted some black nationalism, some criticism of the white government that had been impossible before At the same time, he concedes that they were created by force and are still resisted by the people who have to live in them Looking to the future, the author suggests that "a redistribution of accumulated wealth in South Africa could fundamentally change the lifestyle of every African" Though only a privileged few elsewhere on the continent have benefited economically from independence, he thinks there would be no fat-cat caste of pols in South Africa, but a proletarian leadership He admits that a democratic government would inevitably be as racist as the present settler regime, just as the Lusaka Manifesto's promise of racial egah-tanamsm has not relieved prejudice against Kenya's Asians At base, howevei, the race issue is not the problem of blacks and biowns but of whites So what can be done...

...While passive resistance worked m India, it would surely fail against a regime without morals Adam is pessimistic, too, about the chance of a blockade —even though it would require the participation of only one major power, such as China—and he doubts that the UN could intervene at all The best hope he offers is that industrialization will ultimately prove to be incompatible with pig-mentocracy Adam does not go as far as President Nixon, who has said that segregation will collapse with economic growth in South Africa, but he anticipates a greater white acceptance of nonwhites, the gradual absorption of Eurafncans and possibly Asians Like most long-term lesi-dents, he exaggerates the importance of the limited—and perhaps temporary?dereservation" of some formerly all-white jobs In recent segregated training courses for mechanical trades, blacks have usually done better than whites The contest, of course, is between underemployed, capable blacks and jobless, unskilled whites The Afrikaners (whites of Dutch and French descent), who outnumber the more prosperous Anglos by three to two, are now beginning to catch up economically and, hopefully, in sophistication Boer earnings rose from 56 per cent of Anglo income in 1946 to 80 per cent in 1960, and should reach equality by about 1980 Still, less than half as many Afrikaners as Anglos are university graduates For a book that took five years lesearch, Modernizing Racial Donv-nation contains some flagrant errors At one point Adam writes "3.8 million whites living in the country for three centuries cannot return to a 'motherland' as French settlers did after the Algerian war " This is old South African propaganda Jan van Riebeeck and his party arrived in 1652, when the British took Cape Town in 1806, they censused 10,000 whites and 19,000 "coloreds" (people of mixed blood)—Eurafncans naturally outnumbered Europeans, since there were more wives (all black or colored) and children (of mixed blood), taken together, than white fathers It is important to re-member that the settlers did not bnng women with them, except for a few Dutch prostitutes, not many ot whom survived Some European women appeared in the early 19th century, but mass immigration of both sexes did not come until gold and diamonds were discovered, and the Euiopean population totaled only 100,000 in the early 1900s Thus, while Eurafncans can point to 17th-century Dutch ancestors, no white man can claim to have "been in the country' for more than about 100 years, and well ovei half the present white population consists of first-generation immigrants from Europe and their children Similarly, Adam's claim that "[native] Africans are on the whole materially far better off than in the rest of the developing, newly independent African states' is another old South African saw Those who have never been out of the country at least have the excuse that they cannot veiifier sur place As Adam should know, however, black living standards in South Africa are actually among the worst on the continent Adam also seems to have relied on the local Propagandastaffel for information about the Portuguese, Rhodesian and South African black resistance movements, of which his knowledge is spotty and inaccurate Nonetheless, he recognizes that events inside Portugal are likely to be decisive for its African colomes, just as French domestic politics determined the fate of Algeria, and he notes the possibility of Rhodesian-styled "unilateral declarations of independence" in Angola and Mozambique Adam cites the warnings of rising black military power and insurgency issued by the Afrikaner newspaper Die Tiansvalei (Defense Minister Pieter Botha has made the same pomt even more strongly and authoritatively) and observes that guerrillas have established a forward strike base in the Capnvi Strip Yet he fails to give the larger picture?the likelihood that highjackings, political kidnappings and urban terrorism will replace the old Marxist obsession with rural guerrilla tactics In the interval between the writing and publishing of his book, Adam's case against the theories of the Afrikaner sociologist Pierre L van den Berghe was substantially refuted by the course of events Berghe, for instance, saw that Afro-Asian neutralism would invalidate South Africa's claim to be a bulwark against Communism Adam, on the other hand, held that the closure of the Suez Canal and the rerouting of world shipping around the Cape of Good Hope would make Pretoria strategically significant As it turned out, last year's Third World conference in Lusaka called for Indian Ocean neutrality, whde South Africa's policies have continued to be an encouragement to Communist infiltration on the continent Berghe foresaw the probability of guerrilla warfare and terrorism, Adam discounted it Berghe realized that Portugal's efforts to maintam a multiracial image would be undermined by its collusion with South Africa, Adam predicted closer cooperation between the two countries In fact, Portugal has offered its colomes a multiracial government of sorts, the future of which may depend on disassociation from Pretoria Furthermore, Berghe expected Lesotho and Botswana to become hostile to South Africa after independence He was right about Botswana and would have been right about Lesotho had Pretoria not intervened last year to push Chief Leabua Jonathan back into power after he had lost an election Not only did Adam assume both countries would become more friendly, but he took for granted a South African victory over Namibia in the International Court He was equally premature m rejecting Berghe's prediction of South Africa's expulsion from the UN If that were not enough, Berghe also anticipated the nsmg pan-African opposition to the Vorster regime, Adam, viewing events from behind the settler curtain, bet on "dialogue," a policy that has brought Pretoria only limited success Indeed, international opposition to apartheid has made South Africa a diplomatic, as well as strategic and economic, fringe area The country remains pro-Western because of commeicial and investment interests and because the regime has nothing to gain from the East The ruling Nationalist party, mihtantly pro-Nazi during World War II, has no love for democratic values, a Communist government would come closer to Western ideals than the Vorster administration South Africa's main leverage is with Britain, since 70 per cent of its trade is conducted in sterling, but that will decline if London joins the Common Market and imposes a tariff Pretoria's chief diplomatic ally is France, who supplies it with arms As the world's only independent nation with a caste system officially based on color, South Africa is an embairassing "friend" to the United States, so much so that President Nixon has denounced it as abhorrent U S investment m the country amounts to about $750 million, one-sixth as much as its holdings m black and Arab Africa In recent years Western European investment in South Africa has been twice as great as that of dollar and sterling nations Adam estimates that since the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, U S firms have reinvested less than half of their profits from South African enterprises If South Africa's present ferment should develop into a crisis, it is likely that the U S —lacking any significant economic or strategic stake in the country, and weary now of foreign intervention anywhere—would decline to rescue a racist regime that is unpopular with most Americans Given the fierce antiwhite hostility and growing ethnocentrism of the native African population, however, a black government would probably be as racist in its own way as the Vorster administration A middle route, the logical extension of "separate development," would be partition ot the nation If the black majority obtained the major portion of the land, and wage differentials were to end, it seems safe to predict that most whites would leave in search of whiter horizons...