ABSTRACT
The spiritual grandeur of man’s courage in the face of oppressive evil manifests itself in many ways in the Republic of South Africa. In the 1960s the drama of South Africa is reaching its inevitable climax, though its precise date and outcome is not yet discernible. But three centuries’ encounter between colonising exploitative settler and indigenous African culture clearly indicates the direction of matters. For a white man born in South Africa such an acquisition of full sight is an aching and terrifying experience, full of bewilderment, danger and joy. In the strange, self-contradictory picture of South African society the white man assigns himself an oddly ambiguous position. On the one hand, the police state is becoming daily more stark and suffocating. Dennis Brutus’ own specialised project represents a type of resistance which is technically well within the framework of law and yet manages to challenge the very foundations on which such current legislation and the administration in general, rest.
