South Africa is justifiably in the headlines today as it commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the joyous day when Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster prison, giving the world huge optimism for the future. South African Boer, Rian Malan, journalist, author and anti-apartheid campaigner embarks on what turns out to be one of the last ‘grand old’ steam trains in a dying fascist regime across this beautiful country to find the Lost City, a playground for the privileged white rich. Malan observes for those ‘lucky enough to be white’ in the apartheid regime life could be a good , but not for much longer. He finds a country ‘teeming with incendiaries’ on the ‘brink of anarchy’. This mesmeric overview of South African history is poetically haunting, and has a melancholic end-of-the- line feel. According to Malan, in these last days of Apartheid, the polarisation of white fascists and Black Power eroded the middle ground of liberalism. 44 journalists had been attacked the week he took the train. Dated electronic rave music soundtracks this poignant travel documentary, but also the far superior indigenous music, harkening to a more optimistic time.
Malan followed the footsteps of Gandhi, who like Mandela, helped to overthrow an oppressive, white colonial regime. After being thrown off a train for being Asian, Gandhi founded a commune based on Tolstoy and Ruskinian values to change the course of history. Malan narrates the dirty history of British imperialism capturing gold mines and establishing concentration camps, and encounters empty trains, the despair of white South Africans, beautiful scenery, sun and stone, demonstrations, shootings, nervousness, boredom, lonely bars, deserted stations, soothsayers, striking schoolchildren, and the divisive barriers of the Afrikaan and Zulu languages separating white and black.
In one of many sardonic quips, laid-back Malan observes: ‘It was Saturday night and there were better things to do than breathe teargas’ when a demonstration attracted few supporters. Railways that had once employed 300,000 people before deregulation was being systematically ‘dismembered’ by a lack of passengers, freight, even station closures; hindering Malan’s journey and forcing him to hitch-hike across the rugged sun-scorched landscape.
There are many programmes about Apartheid in the library and they are all worth viewing – I should know, I’ve seen them all! This DVD is available at: 968.06 gre in the off air collection situated on the ground floor of the University Library.
Q. When and where was South Africa’s first railway line established?
