Anthony Egan:
"Was modern apartheid South Africa the product of the ‘mineral revolution’ of gold and diamonds of the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Or do the roots go back even further into the Dutch and British colonial order?
"Modern South African historical scholarship has debated this issue at length. Dr Timothy Keegan of the Institute for Historical Research at the University of the Western Cape has synthesised and criticised key themes in this new history, coming up with a brilliant analytical and narrative argument for shifting the roots of apartheid back to the colonial period.
"Anyone familiar with the dry–as–old–cowdung school history syllabus many of us endured will at first feel a little put off by some of the names, places and events that Keegan describes. Remember Sir Harry Smith, Governor Somerset, Dr John Philip, the 1820 settlers, Great Trek, frontier wars? They’re all here, but they appear as never before in theclassroom! Moreover, Keegan sets South Africa within the wider context of world history, showing how events and ideologies overseas affected local affairs – as one would expect in any outpost of a vast colonial empire.
"Keegan’s point is that talk of the origins of the racial order is largely superfluous: the notion of European/white supremacy was there from the start as an inherent ethnocentrism. As the players in South African history come into conflict over the control of resources, various means were used to maintain colonial political and economic supremacy …
"Both Boer and Brit … were racial supremacists. Though Boer attitudes were perhaps more racist, they were also more likely to share land with independent African communities. The British, however were more systematic and cynical: they pursued maximum profit at minimal cost, often through indirect forms of hegemony. It was their policies, Keegan suggests, that actually hardened hierarchies of race in a way that, one must conclude, formed the basis of the apartheid state.
"To say that Colonial South Africa and the Origins of Racial Order is an impressive work is understatement.It should without a doubt be a major source for educators preparing a new curriculum for schools and universities. Unlike (sadly) many books and learned articles of its kind, it is also very well–written and extremely readable."