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Book: The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckonings
Author: Eve Fairbanks
Review by: Cedric Suzman, retired director of programming at the World Affairs Council of Atlanta
As a former South African, I have read few books about the country’s current-day situation, but The Inheritors offers a fascinating and I think accurate portrayal of South Africa’s problems after Mandela.
The writer is an American journalist visiting the country for the first time, and the story is told through the perspective of three people of different backgrounds and experiences: Dipuo, a Black mother who worked in the kitchens of white employers in the white suburbs; Malaika, Dipuo’s daughter, educated at a previously white school and university and experiencing all the advantages and disillusionment of the new integrated society; and Christo, a young white man who had been recruited into the army to fight in Namibia, but to his regret, never saw any action.
The book is set in about 2010 and illustrates the problems faced by the “new” South Africa. It foreshadows coming dysfunction: Sadly, the country has fallen apart since then and in many ways become a “failed state.” Unemployment is over 30 percent, three times higher than any of the other 40 countries listed in The Economist‘s statistics.
When Jacob Zuma was President, he is reputed to have stolen over $3 billion and the country has been downgraded by the international rating agencies. He is now in prison, but the damage has been done.
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Each year, Global Atlanta asks influential readers and community leaders to review the most impactful book they read during the course of the year. This endeavor has continued annually since 2010.
See last year’s full list of books on BookShop here, and all 2022 reader picks here.
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