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

Based on more than 120 interviews, remarkable for their depth and candor, this revelatory work exposes the heart of the white tribe of Africa, its demons, terrors, and saviors. Goodwin and Schiff present the myriad voices of Afrikaners, from the head of the Broederbond to novelists to church leaders. The interviews document a people haunted by their past murderous deeds and coercive ideology, yet still clinging to power. Here, too, are the words of a few amazing Afrikaners who fought long and hard against vicious odds to save their people's reputation, soul, and humanity. Defeated by the British in 1902 in the Anglo-Boer War, poverty-stricken in the twenties and thirties, the Afrikaner Nationalists instituted apartheid midcentury, forcing millions of black people from "white" areas, jailing Nelson Mandela for twenty-seven years, and torturing and killing hundreds in the name of anticommunism. They used their religion to justify apartheid as God's will. Now God's will is slowly being changed. This book will help readers understand how Afrikaners could invent the biggest social engineering effort of this last half century; how they could justify it on religious grounds; why they are so fearful of blacks; why they are suspicious of outsiders; why some are obsessed with their language; why secrecy is second nature to many; and how they are embracing, resisting, aiding, and thwarting the ongoing transition.