January Sun: One Day, Three Lives, a South African Town - Hardcover

Time contributing editor Stengel offers a cross-section of South African society by tracing a typical day in the lives of three people: a white Afrikaner, a black activist and an Indian shopkeeper. Ronald de la Rey, a veterinarian and cattle eugenicist who applies racialist theories to humans, seems the embodiment of a system that rationalizes its evil. Marshall Cornelius, aka "Life," drives a cab and campaigns for reforms in the segregated squatters' camp, or "township,' where he lives, adjacent to de la Rey's town, some 30 miles west of Pretoria. (In an afterword, we learn that Cornelius was fatally stabbed last May.) In Indian merchant Jaiprakash Bhula, the reader sees how South Africa's significant Asian minority suffers discrimination and economic and political restrictions. In his flat, careful recording of what he sees and hears, Stengel presents a powerful picture of South Africa as a prison camp, run by and for the benefit of the whites.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The idea of portraying individuals' entire existence by tracing their activities through a single day is not original but can be effective if done right, which it is here. Stengel spotlights three South Africans: an Indian merchant, an Afrikaner veterinarian, and a black political activist, all of whom live and work with their families in the same small Transvaal town. Each remains within his own community, keenly aware of the distant proximity of other differing racial groups. Apartheid dominates daily existence, and Stengel shows how the struggle to come to terms with Pretoria's race laws is impossible in this seemingly indestructible, yet vulnerable country. An intriguing perspective that is recommended for African studies collections.
- Ian Wallace, Food Research & Development Centre Lib., St. Hyacinthe, Quebec
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.