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BOOK REVIEWS
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The Tragedy of Apartheid by Norman Phillips.
Published by Allen & Unwin, London. 18s.
Apartheid and Discrimination by K. L. Roskam.
Published by A. W. Sythoff, Leyden, Netherlands. 2is.
The African Revolution by James Cameron.
Published by Thames & Hudson, London. 18s.
D R . V E R W O E R D has always w a n t e d to m a k e a m o n k e y of t h e p r e s s : o n e that saw n o evil, heard n o evil, spoke n o evil and r e p o r t e d n o evil. It's an old nervous tic of all tyrants, and d u r i n g t h e South African Emergency last year, h e , his m i n i s t e r s and h a r d - w o r k i n g p o l i c e , m u s t have felt t h a t they w e r e suc- ceeding, w i t h t h e local press anyway. Police, a r m y and, for some reason, t h e navy, s u r r o u n d e d t h e s t r i k e - b o u n d African t o w n s h i p of Nyanga near Cape T o w n , for instance, and thus t h o u g h t that they p r e v e n t e d t h e press from seeing t h e i r evil goings-on t h e r e ; t h e y eventually c u t t h e t e l e p h o n e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s from t h e t o w n s h i p ; they h o u n d e d , intimidated o r arrested anyone from Nyanga w h o managed to speak to t h e p r e s s ; and they passed Emergency Regulations arbitrarily p r e v e n t i n g t h e press from publishing anything that m i g h t cause " u n r e s t " . T h e local South African press, choking uneasily o n its gag, published police o r official hand-outs almost entirely.
T h e officials w e r e dismayed, t h e n , to see t h e u n c o w e d corps of foreign c o r r e s p o n d e n t s , busily searching e v e r y w h e r e for facts, and considering themselves free of t h e ferocious restrictions placed on t h e local press. An official of t h e State Information Office said picturesquely, " T h e r e is a leakage of news overseas.
By public r e q u e s t this will b e dealt w i t h . "
Shortly afterwards, N o r m a n Phillips, foreign news e d i t o r of t h e Canadian 'Toronto Star\ was arrested, w i t h o u t charge o r t r i a l ; i m p r i s o n e d for t h r e e days and t h e n hastily d e p o r t e d . In his r e c e n t l y published b o o k , he sums u p , accurately I t h i n k ,
128 A F R I C A S O U T H
the main reasons for his arrest:
*' i . A warning to all foreign correspondents and a threat to their sources of information.
" 2. A vindictive action revealing the jittery state of the white-supremacy Government and the dominant position of its (then) national police chief, General Rademeyer., , His book is a racy account of the Sharpeville and post- Sharpeville police orgy of terror, and he sums up simply some of the major discriminatory laws and their background; it is a pity—but probably inevitable—that a few minor errors should escape his sharp sub-editor's eye, and it is deplorable that his publishers should slackly sub-title his account: " A Journalist's Experiences in the South African Riots''. Which riots ? However, it is a sturdy indictment of apartheid which, I hope, will fulfill his jailers' worst fears by reaching hitherto uninformed millions.
Mr. Roskam's book is a more scholarly document, and one of the most valuable up-to-date reference books on South Africa.
It is packed with jewels of verbatim quotes, which will have great historical value:
The African may only reside in towns "when he is willing to enter and minister to the needs of the white man and should depart therefrom when he ceases to minister". (Stallard Com- mission, 1922.)
"South Africa is a white man's country and he must remain the master h e r e . " (Verwoerd)
The mass of assiduously collected statistics in Mr. Roskam's book is skilfully analysed: in facts and interpretation it is the necessary supplement to Basil Davidson's unsurpassed but almost ten-year-old 'Report on Southern Africa*.
James Cameron's book will taste like a fresh, clear river to anvone struggling through the sandy wastes of contradictory
" W e s t e r n " versions of African changes: that is, revolutionary upheavals throughout Africa. He is incomparable, this writer's reporter, in presenting the most turgid situation in the cleanest and most lilting language. He modestly suggests himself that
"purists, specialists and Old Hands" will quarrel with some of his simplifications. It is a beautiful book to quarrel with, though.
His book is part of a sort cf literary Promised Land: an exciting series on all (his publisher's word) the major social and political upheavals of mankind which can be regarded as turning points in human progress.
MYRNA BLUMBERG.
