When Roles are Reversed

In the landscape of modern African history, apartheid is undoubtedly one of the most important and controversial historical events that shaped the continent’s post-colonial world. To the uninitiated, apartheid pertains to South Africa’s official policy of racial segregation; it was also observed in present-day Namibia. For over four decades, from 1948 to the early 1990s, the white minority set it apart from the nonwhite majority. The white denizens occupied the top rung of the highest status; they were succeeded by the Indians, the Coloureds, and occupying the lowest rungs are the black Africans. The apartheid, in effect, ensured that the highest political, social, and economic powers were granted to and controlled by the whites. However, even before apartheid was institutionalized, legally sanctioned racial segregation already existed, underlining the racial tensions that already permeated twentieth-century South African, and by extension, African society.

Like most historical events of tantamount importance, apartheid has been widely chronicled in contemporary literature. The realities of apartheid were vividly depicted in several novels. One of the earlier and most notable examples is Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. The legacy of apartheid is also reflected in Booker Prize-winning novels, such as Nobel Laureate in Literature J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and Damon Galgut’s The Promise. One of the key figures of the anti-apartheid movement, Nelson Mandela, also provided an intimate account of his experiences during his incarceration through his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. An extensive examination and exploration of the intricacies and consequences of apartheid formed a significant part of the oeuvre of another Nobel Laureate in Literature, Coetzee’s countrywoman, Nadine Gordimer.

Early on, Gordimer was critical of the apartheid regime, hence her active involvement in the anti-apartheid movement. As a result of her vocal opposition to apartheid, most of her works were censored or outright banned by the regime. Among her most loved works is July’s People. Originally published in 1981, the novel is set in an imminent future South Africa, where pandemonium has swept the nation. After decades of suffering and oppression under the apartheid regime, the country’s black majority has joined forces to spark a liberation movement that slowly escalated into a full-blown revolution. With the support of militias from neighboring countries, they have successfully wrested control of the country and its institutions from the white minority. This prompted the white minority to flee. However, ports have been seized while airports and major escape routes were bombed.

The seats from the vehicle no longer belonged to it; they had become the furniture of the hut. Outside in an afternoon cooled by a rippled covering of grey luminous clouds, she sat on the ground as others did. Over the valley beyond the kraal of euphorbia and dead thorn where the goats were kept: she knew the vehicle was there. A ship that had docked in a far country. Anchored in the khakiweed, it would rust and be stripped to hulk, unless it made the journey back, soon.

Nadine Gordimer, July’s People

Caught in the crossfire is the Smales family. The patriarch, Bamford, or Bam familiarly, is a white South African architect working in Johannesburg. He was married to Maureen, and the couple had three children: Victor, Gina, and Royce. With the growing tensions, they were forced to flee their home. They found a saving grace in their former black servant, the titular July, who offered them refuge in his isolated rural village. For fifteen years, July worked as a house servant to the Smaleses. With the tumult sweeping the city, the Smales family was forced to flee their suburban home aboard a truck previously bought for hunting holidays for Bam’s fortieth birthday. Fleeing in a rush, they only brought along with them the clothes they had on their backs. They were unable to bring any spare clothing, except for some unusual items, such as Bam’s rifle and a gadget for removing dry cleaners’ tags without damaging the fingernails.

After three days of driving across over 600 kilometers of rough terrain, the Smales family finally arrived in July’s village, which was occupied primarily by July’s relatives. While the couple was cognizant of their fortune of being able to escape the pandemonium alive, they were not prepared for what awaited them in the South African countryside. Used to the comfort of their opulent home, they were forced to adapt to a primitive lifestyle. First, they had to overcome the shock of learning they had to reside in a small, earthen hut with only a piece of sackcloth for a door. This is in stark contrast to their modern home. Further, they had to gather their own food, with Maureen joining the village women to forage for wild spinach and other wild greens. Bam, on the other hand, hunted warthogs with other villagers. On top of this, they had to cook their food on an open fire.

The family was not used to this lifestyle, but they had no other recourse but to learn how to adapt. Stripped of the comforts of their old home, they had to take a bath at the river. Their discomfort was exacerbated by the droning insects that permeated the air and the muck that the hut turned into during rainstorms. Owing to their relative youth, Maureen and Bam’s children quickly adapted to their new life. However, the same cannot be said about their parents, who had a challenging time accepting their present circumstances. However, this barely scratches the surface. What the couple had trouble accepting was the reality that the roles were reversed. They were July’s guests; hence, not only must they be kind to him, but they must also be subservient to him and to his village’s traditions. This was further underlined when they had to present themselves to the village chief to ask for permission to stay in the village.

As the Smaleses immerse themselves in their new life, Gordimer astutely paints their psychological profile, starting with their backstories. The novel slowly transforms into an intricate character study that examines their motivations. Before the revolution, Bam prided himself on his progressive and anti-apartheid views. He was born to an affluent family, unlike Maureen, who was raised in extreme apartheid conditions in a mining town where her father was a mining boss. Her father employed black workers whom he exploited and abused. Bam played a seminal role in indoctrinating his wife with his views; she also distanced herself from the past that she was ashamed of. They advocated for black liberation, manifested in what they perceived as humane treatment of July when he was still under their employ. They went to great lengths to treat July with dignity and respect. They are stern believers in their cause.

He put the keys in his pocket and walked away. His head moved from side to side like a foreman’s inspecting his workshop or a farmer’s noting work to be done on the lands. He yelled out an instruction to a woman, here, questioned a man mending a bicycle tyre, there, hallooed across the valley to the young man approaching who was his driving instructor, and who was almost always with him, now, in a city youth’s jeans, silent as a bodyguard, with a string of beads resting girlishly round the base of his slender neck.

Nadine Gordimer, July’s People

But for how long will they be able to hold on to their views once the odds are no longer in their favor? In light of the drastic changes sweeping the nation, the couple was forced to confront and reevaluate their beliefs. They truly believed in what they advocated for. However, the image of rural life they once romanticized—long imagining countryside villages as a perfect holiday destination, complete with shooting trips—was slowly being dismantled by each new experience. In the midst of it all, they were out of sorts and disoriented, unsure of what to do or how to make sense of their situation: All the old games, the titillation with killing-and-not-killing, the honour of shooting only on the wing, the pretense of hide-and-seek invented to make killing a pleasure, were in another kind of childhood he had been living in to the age of forty, back there. This only belied the realities that were simmering beneath the surface.

Apartheid exposed the prevailing power dynamics. The Black majority was essentially stripped of its humanity. Forced to live in unlivable conditions, they endured the oppression of the white minority for years. Nevertheless, there were some among the white minority, like the Smaleses, who advocated for parity—or at least for the end of the apartheid regime. But most of the time, their activism was performative at best. Take the case of the Smales family: they were vocally supportive of the anti-apartheid movement. However, when the power dynamics were reversed, their complicity began to surface. Deprived of the social standing and privileges that apartheid had afforded them, the Smales family’s latent racism—particularly Maureen’s—became increasingly palpable. Having to rely on July for food, shelter, and even protection, Maureen struggled to accept the reversal in power dynamics.

Maureen’s resentment toward July grew with each incident, although tensions were already palpable early on, albeit on a microscopic level. A major catalyst was the family’s small truck—the bakkie. It was one of the last remnants of the Smaleses’ former privileged life. When July used it with the couple’s permission, they began to grasp the implications of their dependence on their former servant. This escalated into full-scale resentment when July decided to keep the key, effectively reaffirming the family’s dependency on him and severing yet another tie to the world beyond the village. The couple, once grateful to July for the charity he extended during the tumult, began to question his faithfulness and even his honesty. They also started to question the benevolent image they had conjured for themselves.

Unbeknownst to the couple, in providing refuge, July was making significant concessions—some with severe consequences. He ensured the family was well-fed, even though the village barely had enough for itself. Furthermore, July’s mother and his wife, Martha, opposed his decision to shelter his former masters. They saw it as a continuation of his servitude and warned of the consequences once the Black insurgents found out that help was being extended to the Smaleses. Even July had moments of inner conflict, questioning his allegiance to the Smaleses at the expense of loyalty to his own people. Despite all the conflicts and tensions arising from various directions, July remained steadfast in protecting and providing for the Smaleses.

The chief wanted them to move on; the three children running in and out the hut with their childish sensationalism, their plaints, their brief ecstasies, his wife knocking a nail into her sandal with a stone, and he, shaving outside where there was light. Would tell them to go. What business of the chief’s to tell them where? He had not asked them to come here. A wide arc of the hand: plenty place to go. And this was not their custom, but the civilized one; when a white farmer sold up, or died, the next owner would simply say to the black labourers living and working on the land, born there: go.

Nadine Gordimer, July’s People

July’s People captures the hypocrisy of the white liberation movement. While its members champion progressive ideals such as racial equality and human rights, as the Smaleses demonstrate, actions speak louder than words. In the company of July’s people, their ideologies were put to the test, revealing their underlying hypocrisy. Their actions contradicted the very causes they claimed to support. Their latent racism became evident once the privileges they had long enjoyed were stripped away. Experiencing the same oppression the Black populace had endured, they began to long for the comforts of their former life. A radio the Smaleses brought with them when they fled Johannesburg provided their only connection to the outside world. It became the last thread linking them to their old life. They constantly tuned in, hoping for news of a victory for their fellow whites.

As the story progresses, the Smaleses can no longer hide their desire to return to the privileged, comfortable life they once had—ironically afforded to them by apartheid and the labor of people like July. This only further underscores their complicity. Their progressive views are shown to be merely performative—a façade. Gordimer extensively examines the ironies of white liberalism, the legacy of apartheid, and entrenched racial hierarchies. Central to exposing white liberalism as a sham is the novel’s exploration of power dynamics. The unexpected shift in power forces the characters to reexamine their loyalties and beliefs. These circumstances highlight how gratitude for acts of charity can quickly transform into resentment. The novel also astutely explores the effects of cultural displacement.

July’s People presents an alternate history in which the apartheid regime is confronted with the same level of oppression it inflicted upon the Black population. In this imagined scenario, Gordimer exposes the complicity and hypocrisy of white liberalism and its superficial commitment to social justice. She reveals the performative nature of certain forms of activism, which, when scrutinized, quickly erode. In doing so, Gordimer subtly examines the psychological and social impacts of apartheid. The Black majority was forced into subservience, while the white minority developed a distorted sense of benevolence and humanity. More than just exposing the legacy of apartheid, Gordimer captures the complex and often fraught interactions between the white and Black populations of South Africa. Overall, July’s People is a complex and thought-provoking masterpiece—a triumph of Gordimer’s storytelling and prose.

She understood although she knew no word. Understood everything: what he had had to be, how she had covered up to herself for him, in order for him to be her idea of him. But for himself—to be intelligent, honest, dignified for her was nothing; his measure as a man was taken elsewhere and by others. She was not his mother, his wife, his sister, his friend, his people.

Nadine Gordimer, July’s People
Book Specs

Author: Nadine Gordimer
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publishing Date: 1982 (1981)
Number of Pages: 160
Genre: Historical, Speculative

Synopsis

For years, it had been what is called a “deteriorating situation.” Now all over South Africa the cities are battlegrounds. The members of the Smales family – liberal whites – are rescued from the terror by their servant, July, who leads them to refuge in his village. What happens to the Smaleses and to July – the shifts in character and relationships – gives us an unforgettable look into the terrifying, tacit understandings and misunderstandings between blacks and whites.

About the Author

To learn more about the first female African Nobel Laureate in Literature, click here.