CHAPTER 1
m
OUT-KICKED
they are out to demonstrate their decency and good-
will， to themselves as well as others， white South Africa s racial theorists
are inclined to lose themselves in a riot of euphemisms， analogies， and
fatuous forecasts. A lot of words get spilled as the urge to be understood
clashes with an aversion to l~eing understood too well. But when being
understood is no longer an issue， language can be used sparingly. The
letter informing me I had a week to clear out of South Africa was a
model of economy， unencumbered by explanations. \"You are hereby
instructed，\" it said， \"to make arrangements for yourself and your family
to leave the Country on or before the 28th April， 1966.\"
We had been there for only eleven months， but the message had
long been expected， ever since an official had canceled a lunch in
Pretoria， privately explaining that he would be compromised if he were
seen again with someone the Cabinet had decided to expel. When the
snub was finally made official， my immediate reaction was relief. A
weight had been lifted， and as we walked out of the terminal at Jan
Smuts Airport to our plane for Rome--two days ahead of the official
deadline--I had a feeling of lightness， of freedom as a palpable sensa-
tion， such as I had never known before. Possibly it occurred to me at
that moment to wonder whether I would ever set foot in South Africa
again. But since I had now been officially certified an enemy--\"one of
South Africa s most notorious enemies in the world，\" an Afrikaans-
language newspaper would later say， honoring me beyond my deserts
--that would have been tantamount to wondering whether the regime
would crumble and fall in my lifetime.
Fourteen years later， when the suspicion that I might be recon-
stituted as a persona grata in South Africa hatched itself almost in-
|
内容加载中，请稍后...
商品评论（0条）