An Open Letter to Mandela, or, Breytenbach is at it Again
In his inimitably biting style, Breyten Breytenbach has written an open letter to Nelson Mandela on SA’s “failed revolution” that appears in the current issue of Harper’s Magazine. The award-winning writer, who is no stranger to provoking the ire of his sometime compatriots, claims that he would advise young South Africans to leave the country, were they to ask for his advice on whether to stay or go. (Breytenbach himself left South Africa in 1960, settling in Paris as a political exile.)
Afrikaans journalist Charles Smith reflects on the castigating, 10-page article – full title: Mandela’s smile: Notes of South Africa’s failed revolution (availabe to Harper’s subscribers only, alas) – and cites the relentless, mindless violence, nepotism and corruption that prevail here as sources both of South Africa’s shame and of Breytenbach’s incendiary call to quit the country.
Don’t miss the vibrant, contentious discussion thread below the article:
Breytenbach wil van Mandela, wat hy soos sy eie pa beskou, weet: “Het u, het ons, ernstig gepoog om ’n demokratiese bestel in Suid-Afrika teweeg te bring met sy wigte en teenwigte en rekenpligtigheid? Of was dit om iemand terug te kry vir die koloniale sondes?
“Hoe lank kan ons voortgaan op die skisofreniese mespunt tussen die diskoers van gelykheid en geregtigheid en die praktyk van plundering en arbitrêre mag? Hoe lank nog kan die dubbelpratery volgehou word vir die volk en vir die buitewêreld? Hoekom het die menselewe geen waarde nie? Is dit tradisioneel?”
Breytenbach vra Mandela of hy weet dat “nasionale bevryding” deur vernedering en misbruik (soos in Algerië, Angola, Guinee-Bissau) die droom verwoes van ’n moderne Afrika wat stam uit die Afrika-wortels en -realiteite.
Book Details
- Die Windvanger by Breyten Breytenbach
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EAN: 9780798147507
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- A Veil of Footsteps (Memoir of a nomadic fictional character) by Breyten Breytenbach
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EAN: 9780798149273
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