Modernizing Racial Domination: South Africa's Political Dynamics.

Abstract

The publisher tells us that the author is a native of Germany who spent some time in South Africa and who is now at Simon Fraser University. It is a pity that the publisher did not have the author's style revised by somebody who has mastered the art of using the English language for the purpose of lucid exposition. As it is, the reader is hard put to discover exactly what the author is trying to say in these turgid pages. Of course, only a minority of social scientists express themselves clearly and with precision, but we really must protest that obscurity cannot be accepted as wisdom. To his credit, Mr. Adam perceived the paradox whereby a country that should, by all reports, by overripe for revolution (because rotten with injustice) is today the most stable in Africa. If the author had had clear and valid ideas about political theory and practice, he might have contributed something of value to the much needed explanation of this paradox. As it is, his exposition is admittedly derived in the main from informative books previously published and there is nothing fresh or stimulating in this book. Perhaps the vital fact to grasp about South Africa is this: British policy, open or disguised, continues to support Pretoria, while condemning apartheid on formal occasions. This policy, especially in the economic field, is in effect endorsed and followed by the United States, France, and West Germany. Mr. Adams devotes a few pages to this situation but he fails to explain its basic importance. We must, however, recognize that even without these powerful allies, South Africa's white rulers could continue to keep the black millions in subjection. To think otherwise is to believe that an unjust society is necessarily an unstable one. Unfortunately it is not; and Mr. Adam at least knows that there is no revolution around the corner. But to describe the government of this sick society as a pragmatic oligarchy is to cover the absence of deeper analysis with a fancy phrase. JULIUs LEWIN London