FEARS Commentary of an extract from André Brink’s imaginings of sand published in Bridges Term

PICTURE
On the right-hand side there is a photo which must have been taken in South Africa in 1994 : On the photo there is a huge poster of representing Nelson Mandela. At the top in capital letters it’s written Mandela for president, and at the bottom, it’s written the people’s choice; an there is a flag and the ANC logo ,too. The ANC is the African National Congress, the political party defending the black Africans’ rights. Mandela’s photo is torn in the upper part as the man who is holding this poster has pushed his head through the poster. The black man ,wearing a cap is smiling and holding up his right arm. It may be during the election campaign or after the overwhelming ANC victory. (overwhelming: écrasante)
TEXT
The text is an extract from the book Imaginings of Sand, a book written by André Brink, a famous South African writer an d published in 1996.
In this passage, Kristien the narrator is talking to her brother-in -law Casper about the situation in their country. Although they are both Afrikaners and members of the same family they deeply disagree. • Casper must be violent towards black people. He admits L. 1 “so we overreacted”. He must feel very anxious in this climate of insecurity . L. 5, 6 “Do you realize she’s the fourth elderly person attacked ..”. He tries to remain polite. L. 25 “ the Kaf .. he checks himself, the blacks”. Kristien reminds him that violence is not the answer. He is angry and scornful, meaning Black people don’t understand any other language. He feels the need to justify their presence in South Africa: their families have been living here for several generations. More than 3 centuries ago they arrived from Europe , from Britain and the Netherlands. They are entitled to live here, they have no other country, they have worked hard to survive in spite of the difficulties. But now