Higher than Hope: The Biography of Nelson Mandela by Fatima MeerReview by: Jennifer Seymour WhitakerForeign Affairs, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Summer, 1990), p. 191Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20044483 .

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RECENT BOOKS 191

further revisions in the economic system, particularly in prices. Klintworth stresses China's growing military power?particularly its growing naval reach. The next decade will see China's largest and most ambitious naval

expansion since the Ming Dynasty.

Africa

Jennifer Seymour Whitaker

MY TRAITOR'S HEART. By Rian Malan. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990, 349 pp. $19.95.

In this extraordinary self-exploration, a white South African (liberal by temperament) confesses to his racial fears and to the almost unbridgeable

divide he sees between blacks and whites at the tip of Africa. His book aims first at a panoramic view of the violence inherent in white-black relations as

well as in blacks' dealings with each other. As he confronts his fears, the

story becomes an exploration of whites' paranoia about the "darkness of Africa" in their black compatriots. Thus, as the narrative builds, we lose

sight of the social causes of black violence and even of the urban setting where most blacks live and work, in a fascinated focus on tribally rooted terrors. No bigot and always brutally honest, Malan admits to his own

racism, but the ultimate effect of his narrative, nonetheless, is to blame the victim.

UNDER THE HARROW: LIVES OF WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS TODAY. By Suzanne Gordon. London: Heinemann, 1990, 369 pp. (North Pomfret (VT): David & Charles, distributors, $29.95.)

This collage of white South Africans (which follows Gordon's parallel book of interviews with black domestic servants) evokes real people against a rich succession of backdrops. Gordon's extraordinary sense of South

African locale infuses her characters' personae and stories, conveying the

material comfort and energetic sense of striving many of them share. It is doubtful that a group characterized by almost universal good humor and realized ambition is typical, but they are undoubtedly quite variegated politically. For most of them, however, the current approach to black-white relations of F. W. de Klerk goes to the margin of political acceptability?or far bevond. The beautv and comfort of their lives could all be swept awav.

HIGHER THAN HOPE: THE BIOGRAPHY OF NELSON MANDELA. By Fatima Meer. New York: Harper & Row, 1990, 464 pp. $19.95.

A South African sociologist who is also a Mandela family friend offers an uneven but interesting portrait of South Africa's preeminent black leader.

Strongest on details about Mandela's childhood in the rural Transkei and his relationship with wife and children, Meer's account shows the man quite fully but blurs the political role. What comes through most clearly is how far the years of virtual isolation and continuing political commitment

appear to have intensified the human warmth of husband, father and friend.

AGENDA FOR ACTION: AFRICAN-SOVIET-U.S. COOPERATION. Edited by Anatoly A. Gromyko and C. S. Whitaker. Boulder (CO): Lynne Rienner, 1990, 290 pp. $15.95 (paper).

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