162 sistently placed in their way. Both South Africans and those outside are the poorer because of these restraints. That Alan Paton, novelist and biographer and without question the most widely known of contemporary South African authors, writes and publishes such frank and perceptive criticisms bears witness, however, to the indomitable spirit and persistent efforts of those inside South Africa who have never succumb- ed to the insidious rules and pressures by which government attempts to cir- cumscribe the writing of history and the chronicling of current events. In all highly restrictive situations the most disturbing casualties are those scholars and writers who make almost unconscious compromises to maintain their own positions and perhaps do not realize - and certainly do not face - the harm they do to braver spirits and to the communities within which they work. Costly as it is, the visible protests of young Soviet writers over arbitrary action against their fellows and against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and of Alan Paton and others against arbitrary actions by the South African government are vital in keeping alive in others the spirit they embody themselves. Those of us who have known Alan Paton have cherished memories of his conversations. Peering quizzically over his glasses, as is his wont, Paton utters, as he writes, hard, unpalatable comments coupled with a view of a constructive future that may come some day. Standing on a dusty Natal road bidding good- bye to this reviewer some 15 years ago, Paton concluded a searching analysis of South Africa's situation on the center of its complex " by focusing power political life: the Afrikaner Nationalists. It may be" he said, with the searching yet far away look that comes close to that of a prophet, "that a people must die that a truth can live". These are words not to be forgotten even as one watches the panoply of wealth and apparent invulnerability of white South Africa today. As Paton says in his brief introduction to this book, South Africa has more time to re- consider and reshape its internal policies than he had expected while watching the march to independence in so much of the African continent. But for what will that time be used: to harden and fortify the system of apartheid and se- parate development, or to move constructively towards a mutually acceptable working together of all those groups that contribute to South Africa's wealth and power? The easy answer is to assert the former. Paton's Long View sees both the consequences of continued intransigence, and the hope of ultimate change.

Northwestern University GWENDOLEN M. CARTER Illinois, U.S.A.

P. van den Berghe, South Africa : a Study in Conflict. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1967, pp. 371. $ 2.45 (paper).

Mr. van den Berghe's study of South Africa was first published in 1965. Now, after three years, it has been reissued as a paperback. Described as a sociological study, it nevertheless contains a good deal of economic and po- litical information which is most useful for one generally interested in South BOOK REVIEWS 163

Africa's future, and which is not at all invalidated in its broad outlines by the events of the past few years. By a thorough study of available sources, and a careful selection of telling and significant facts and figures, Mr. van den Berghe provides a complete indictment of the system of apartheid, a system which, as he himself explains, is not based so much on separateness as on the suppression and exploitation of the vast majority of the people who are non-White. The State and the laws are directed to maintaining a White monopoly of political power, and this in turn is utilised to buttress the economic domination by the White farmers and big European industrial, banking, and manufacturing interests. Both English- speaking and Afrikaner-speaking share in this exploitation, and this explains why, despite their rivalry and the dominant political control in the hands of the Afrikaners, "the vast majority of Whites, both Afrikaners and English, has always agreed on the perpetuation of White supremacy." The reason, ex- plains Mr. van den Berghe, is that "The English share all the privileges of the other Whites, and they do not want to change the existing system of White oppression." Mr. van den Berghe rightly points out that South African tyranny is assisted by external allies - Portugal and Rhodesia - but he appears to under- estimate the significance of the new policy of South Africa in "absorbing", by economic and political influence, the new independent territories of Malawi, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, and in reaching out to gain influence in Rhodesia and Mozambique, and to threaten Zambia and Tanzania. The question of the "southern bastion" is a vital new factor in African politics, as Mr. van den Berghe hints in his preface to this new edition. But the mainte- nance of such a stronghold of White power in Southern Africa is only made possible by the support it receives from the major Western powers. As Mr. van den Berghe reminds us, the United States and Britain account for half of South Africa's foreign trade and investments. Together with other NATO powers, they owned in 1960 no less than 93 per cent of all foreign investments in South Africa. Clearly, the overthrow of this "skunk of the world", to use Mr. van den Berghe's apt and vivid term, will be no easy task. It will need a combination of external pressure (mainly exerted to end British and American economic, arms, and diplomatic support for the Government of South Africa) and inter- nal revolt. It is perhaps on this latter aspect of the internal revolt that Mr. van den Berge proves most unsatisfactory. Although he provides a very penetrating analysis of the economic effects of White domination on the African majority (and on the Indians and Coloured) his less-than-thirty pages devoted to "the non-White opposition" are inadequate and ill-informed. It is difficult to under- stand this, since the author's bibliographical references show he has a wide knowledge of the relevant sources. Possibly Mr. Van den Berghe has not had close working acquaintance in these past few years with those actively working to overthrow the apartheid regime. This, together with that peculiar reluctance of most North American scholars to show overt sympathy with national liber- ation movements and left causes, may well account for his underwriting the role of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party which are clearly playing the key role in the guerilla actions spreading south-