The South African censor: No change

Abstract

On 11 July 1979 Nadine Gordimer's novel Burger's Daughter was banned by the South African Directorate of Publications on the grounds – among others – that the book was a threat to state security. ( Excerpts from the censor's arguments were printed on the back cover of Index on Censorship 1/1980.) After an international outcry the Director of Publications on 1 August 1979 appealed against the decision of his own censorship committee to the Publications Appeal Board. A committee of literary experts was appointed, and a hearing on the appeal was set for 3 October. But the hearing did not take place; in early October 1979 the book was simply released for distribution. Some weeks later a similar pattern was shown in the treatment of André Brink's Afrikaans-language novel A Dry White Season. The book was banned, the censorship board – not the author – appealed against its own decision, and the book was un-banned. In the article which follows, Nadine Gordimer reflects on these events, and on the new censorship policy they herald. Her article was originally a paper presented to a University of Cape Town conference on censorship held in April 1980. It was first published in Critical Arts: A Journal for Media Studies, Vol 1, No 2, June 1980, ( available from the School of Dramatic Art, University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa). The papers from the censorship conference will be published by David Philip, Capetown.