White South Africans often say that their childhood was special. White South African writers seem to feel the need to describe and share this specialness, particularly as it relates to the apartheid years.
Childhood was special because a wonderful climate allowed freedom of movement, freedom to enjoy the outdoors all year round, a fearless, unfettered youth in the sun. But the main contributing factors to these childhoods were the privilege and entitlement created by a racially divided society, with its black underclass. Most whites, even if not wealthy, had domestic help, household comforts, and usually the benefit of a strong family infrastructure. These conditions were diametrically opposed to those of the black populace around them.
Each of the following authors brings his or her particular sensitivity and sensibility to the material, but all the pictures of childhood carry an underlying awareness of the racial divide. All but two of the following titles are non–fiction. Only one of the writers still lives in South Africa.
Ja No Man: Growing Up White In Apartheid South Africa. Richard Poplak. Penguin Canada. 2007
Award–winning author Poplak describes what it was like to live as a white Jewish boy in suburban Johannesburg during the apartheid years of the '70s and'80s. He writes about his average teenage experiences, imbued with his love of pop culture, his concerns about the effects on his growing years of censorship, doing military training at school, and the challenges of living in a racially divided country. While written with comic flair, Poplak never belittles the effects of apartheid on his generation.
Pulani: A Memoir of Growing Up In Apartheid South Africa. Rachel Louis Coeetzee. Heroides Publishing LLC. 2011
The author came of age during the last years of apartheid. Set against both the openness of the South African veld and a life of privilege in the Free State town of Bloemfontein, the author describes with loving detail her family home, her close relationships with family members, particularly her mother and grandmother, and her friendships through the years. Her marriage to an Afrikaner introduced her to the Afrikaans culture, and her story highlights the differences between the English and the Afrikaans way of life. She also documents the events leading up to her husband's decision to take his family to the United States in 1993.
Each chapter is introduced by a factual account of the political events of the year in question.
TIME, Gentlemen! Evan Kaplan. Osborne and Porter. 2011
An evocative memoir about growing up in Colesberg, at the old Colesberg Hotel, in the Karoo region of the Cape Province, a popular stop en route to or from the coast. Kaplan describes with warmth and humor the life of the hotel, and life in a small Karoo town in the '40s and '50s. But the book is more than a coming–of–age story, or a trip down memory lane. it is a picture of a slice of South African life that no longer exists.
Jewels and other Stories. Dawn Promislow. Tsar Publications. 2010
These fourteen short stories, Promislow's debut collection, while not dealing with childhood per se, are evoked by the experiences of her young years. Set in the South Africa of the '70s, they reflect in tight prose the vast differences between the whites and blacks in the apartheid era, and the resulting inequities. Promislow introduces a surprising cast of characters, and her stories range from two black nannies seeing the ocean for the first time (also touched on in Pulani) to police brutality.
Sharmalla and Other Portraits. Elleke Boehmer. Jacana Media. 2010
A collection of seventeen short stories by an Oxford academic. Arranged in chronological order, from childhood memories on, again these stories contrast the lives of affluent whites in their big houses with the simple lives of the black domestic servants. Set against the changing fabric of South Africa, Boehmer draws portraits of a range of subjects: men, women, children, politicians, and domestic servants.
A turbulent period of South African history inspired these books, and they form a mosaic of different childhood experiences.
Isme Bennie - Ismé Bennie, a well-known Canadian tv executive, is now a media management consultant and non-fiction writer.
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