ABSTRACT
For the benefit of non-South African readers, who might be wondering if my title refers to some obscure Renaissance figure who bears a relation to King Lear even more subtle, far-reaching and unlikely than Samuel Harsnett, I should immediately state that Derek Hanekom is South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs.1 What he is doing in the company of Shakespeare will, I hope, become clear as I go along. In any event, I want to begin by situating my remarks on King Lear in Hanekom’s present-day South Africa rather than in Shakespeare’s early modern England.
