REVIEW: P. B. HarrisPopular Social Anthropology"A VERY STRANGE SOCIETY"A Journey to the Heart of South AfricaALLEN DRURY(Trident Press)Allen Drury has written (this work excepted) sixbooks. Four are described as "Fiction" and twohave been described as "Non-fiction". "A VeryStrange Society" might be described as a mixtureof fiction and fact. The work is ostensibly a factualaccount of life in the Republic of South Africa: infact, while some real live characters are used,some named and some un-named, Mr. Druryinvents persons who act as vehicles for Mr. Drury'slatest excursion into his favourite field, part novel,part travelogue.On page 334, we are told of a "businessman outfrom England on a two-year study mission for hiscompany". The businessman appears to have aremarkable knowledge of certain South Africanlobbies. Our suspicions are further strengthenedby the suggestion that the English businessman'susage of Americanisms like "a while back".Social investigation, it is felt, should not employterms like "courage", "brave", but rather moreneutral, unheroic language. Mr. Beyers Naud6,evicted from the Dutch Reformed Church onaccount of his lack of sympathy with apartheid,presents a case in point.Sometimes Mr. Drury descends into sarcasm:"ladies of the Cabinet dressed in the finest tastethat Afrikanerdom affords" (p. 378), and later herefers to the American couple proposing to settlein Johannesburg: "They will live in a great bighouse in Houghton, supported by a small brigadeof barely paid blacks", (p. 424).These and other linguistic usages, togetherwith the selective slant of Mr. Drury's observationalbias lead one to a first conclusion that, whileMr. Drury sees the Republic of South Africa withthe eye of a trained journalist, the book is not tobe regarded as the authentic picture of SouthAfrica. Mr. Drury triumphs in the end and appearsto rise above it all as he flits and floats in and outof the big cities.Mr. Drury offers us many courses, but it is ameal full of bitty morsels, eventually resulting in ajaded palate. It is indeed, difficult to keep upsustained reading of this very strange book.Padding, unfortunately, abounds, on p. 373 we aretold of the number of microphones (37 in all)which hang down from the ceiling of the House ofAssembly and glossy magazine type descriptionof the Kruger National Park (p. 442).There are some interesting freudian slips: wehear, on p. 39, of a ferocious institution (whichmight attract the attention of the InternationalCommission of Jurists), called the South AfricaPain Research Institute at the University of Natal,DurbanŠwhich turns out to be no more than amis-print for "paint". His Grace, the RomanCatholic Archbishop of Durban, Denis Hurley,becomes Hurly [sic], no great error in substanceperhaps, but there is no one more involved in thehurly-burly of South African religio-politics thanthe Archbishop. Of course, it had to be Tsafendas,the assassin, who (nearly) bumped into the authoras he spent a day sight-seeing in the South AfricanParliament at Cape Town.One will find the usual South African groupslisted here: the Broederbond, the S.A.B.C, theUniversities of both shades (though the storyabout Harry Lamont is perhaps too glib an explana-tion as to why the University of Pretoria threw inits lot with Afrikanerdom).Mr. Drury mentions the bedrock of the Republic'sprosperity, gold (p. 114) and diamonds (p. 121),87but one gets the feeling that he doesn't know quitewhat to do with the facts. In truth he is more athome with the economic facts. He is, therefore,much better on the S.A.B.C. (p. 133) than he is onother South African institutions.The best parts of the book are those whichdescribe his interviews with Verwoerd, Vorster,Sir de Villiers Graaff, Afrikaner leaders of churchand state and, of course, his unabashed admirationfor Mrs. Helen Suzman.One is impressed in the interview with Verwoerdby the fact that Verwoerd was all in matters of racephilosophy. (Verwoerd's cunning pun on Paki-stanŠBantu-stan springs to mind.) One is furtherimpressed by the lack of new thinking on raceproblems in South Africa since the assassinationof Verwoerd. Verwoerd's policy might be reducedto two words perhaps, "Never Compare". SouthAfrica did not concern itself with the mores ofother states and peoples, and these should returnthe compliment. Vorster, described in bestjournalese as "intelligent, blunt, pragmatic, tough,direct and no-nonsense", emerges as a kindlierperson than legend and newspapers would have usbelieve. Surely between Balthazar J. Vorster andHelen Suzman, there is evidence of a mutual,albeit hostile, respect for talents in utterly opposeddirections.Mr. Drury is less kind to Sir de Villiers Graaffof the United Party. Accepting the hospitality ofthe Leader of the Opposition, he approachesSir de Villiers with something close to condescen-sion, whether at Paarl or in Parliament.The value of Mr. Drury's book is that it proceedsby means of a number of professional insights to apicture of a society which is perhaps not so much"strange" as "illogical". There co-exist side byside, as Mr. Drury suggests, "grand" and "petty"apartheid, what he sees as a petty-minded applica-tion of laws on the part of certain officials. If theBantustan policy is meaningful, why is it notpushed ahead with more confidence?Ša questionasked by the late Chief Luthuli in conversationwith Mr. Drury. Insights there are in good mea-sureŠthe story of the Athlone Advice Bureauwith its practical unravelling of the laws applyingto Africans and their helpful adviceŠthe CapeBantu girl forced to the Transkei, a veritableforeign land for her, because her husband, aTranskeian, could not or would not support herand the baby. Then is the singular and instructivetribute paid to the British Empire by the Afrikanerwho had cause to hate it (p. 333) and the subtletyof the portraits of persons and characters.As one interviewed by Mr. Drury in Durban, andknowing the techniques which he used, theauthor of this review feels that in the field ofpopular social observation, Mr. Drury has fewequals, but knowing Mr. Drury's prowess ingetting people to talk while remaining silenthimself, one suspects that Mr. Drury has given thebook a dimension missing in his rough notes.