An Englishman Tries To Understand Apartheid

In writing about South Africa today, one must consider what is likely to be the natural evolution of human affairs in all of Africa south of the Sahara.

The critics of South Africa fall broadly into two groups: the ignorant, or the all-but ignorant, who join the chorus of fashionable protest, and those comparatively few who, knowing the facts, genuinely find the policy or the practice of apartheid objectionable. Those of us who feel that the policy of apartheid, despite its present awkwardness and theoretical rigidity, its frequent anomalies and occasional cruelties, is likely to prove the least unjust and painful of available choices, must ask both groups to relate their opinions to the broad situation in Africa, both historically and geographically. It is, therefore, to the whole phenomenon of African nationalism, and its bearing upon the relationship between the African and European races on that continent, that I would like to devote this article.

TS

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Tom Stacey

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In writing about South Africa today, one must consider what is likely to be the natural evolution of human affairs in all of Africa south of the Sahara.

The critics of South Africa fall broadly into two groups: the ignorant, or the all-but ignorant, who join the chorus of fashionable protest, and those comparatively few who, knowing the facts, genuinely find the policy or the practice of apartheid objectionable. Those of us who feel that the policy of apartheid, despite its present awkwardness and theoretical rigidity, its frequent anomalies and occasional cruelties, is likely to prove the least unjust and painful of available choices, must ask both groups to relate their opinions to the broad situation in Africa, both historically and geographically. It is, therefore, to the whole phenomenon of African nationalism, and its bearing upon the relationship between the African and European races on that continent, that I would like to devote this article.