Heart of Whiteness: Afrikaners Face Black Rule in the New South Africa

The willingness of Afrikaners to adapt to majority rule in South Africa is more pragmatic than moral, declare the authors, and this mosaic, including some 125 interviews, provides a textured sense of the thoughts and world of South Africa's once-ruling white tribe. The interviewees, ranging from professors to farmers to musicians, are hardly monolithic in outlook, debating even such fundamental questions as whether they are truly African. The authors concentrate on the Broederbond (the secret society dedicated to Afrikaner uplift and control); the Dutch Reformed church, with its too-slow move toward racial justice; the history and future of the Afrikaans language; and the legacy of the police state. Goodwin, former Africa correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, and husband Schiff, who teaches politics at Oberlin College, ultimately found ``seeds of peaceful change among Afrikaners but also deep roots of violence.'' However, because the reporting was conducted in 1992, this book is already slightly dated, saying little about the 1994 elections and the Mandela presidency. (Nov.)