Roots

For A Change, June-July, 2004 by Helen Duigan

Fourteen years ago in Germany I was asked to address a group of people on South Africa. It was in the final days of the National Party, two months before the ANC was unbanned and Nelson Mandela released from jail. I said: 'l am an Afrikaner and I love being an Afrikaner.' Silence. How could anyone who was a member of the polecat tribe of the world make such a statement?

I still feel that way. My roots go deep into the African soil. But as a white South African, one's professional options are becoming fewer and fewer. Max du Preez put it bluntly. (In the Eighties he launched South Africa's only Afrikaans anti-apartheid newspaper, which was finally closed down by government pressure.)

'After years as an independent operator I decided it was time to get a job and I applied for something right up my alley. But: "You and I know you're ideal for this job, but it's politically and strategically impossible to appoint a white person," I was told by the interviewer. "We have to go black now. History is against you, my brother."'

This experience led du Preez to write his latest bestseller, Pale Native. 'I can change my personality, my qualifications, my appearance--I could even have a sex change. But I cannot change the colour of my skin,' he says.

'The energy I feel gushing from the soil into my spirit tells me who I am. The ancient mountains around me whisper to me that I am where I belong. In Africa.' I am with Max on this. It's not colour, it's love and commitment.