One day Paul did not come to work. He had been detained in police custody. None of us knew about his double life as a political activist. He spent several years in prison as a communist (communism was the synonym for any anti-government activity), later leaving the country for exile in England where he continued to pursue his political beliefs. We never got back in touch. Robert and I had a little fantasy going, that one day if we were both alone, we would move in together into a little rose-covered cottage. That never happened.
I left South Africa again in 1965 – for the US this time, and it was several years before I went back. I always returned feeling some sort of anxiety, though my political involvement had been almost non-existent. On one trip I was invited to Robert’s home for dinner. By then he had given up journalism for painting. I was looking forward to the company of an old friend and his usual good cooking, but we ended up sitting in a row in front of the television set watching old black-and-white series. South Africa finally got television in 1976 and it became the focus of people’s lives.
I had reconnected with Harald, who was now enjoying a successful post-news magazine career. Some years before, I read in The New York Times that he had won a 1969 Nieman Fellowship to Harvard and was in the USA. It was an opportunity for him to devote a year to learning and exploration before returning to his country to provide critical leadership to the press. I contacted him – I was living in New York by this time – and Harald, his wife and baby spent a weekend with me. Ironically, a friend who had planned to go to an anti-apartheid rally ended up babysitting for them. Robert died in 2010, having become a very well-known painter, both in South Africa and in the UK. I don’t know what happened to Ronnie; he left the old country I should think.
It is hard to convey what that news magazine era was like. It is so different these days when I go back, back to the new South Africa. There is fear of crime and violence, there is political corruption, huge unemployment, but no longer the kind of political persecution of the apartheid years. And wherever I go, I encounter black South Africans as my fellow shoppers and diners, taking care of much of the country’s day-to-day business. I think back to my first day in London, the first day so many years ago of my very first trip abroad. I was on a crowded London bus, and the black conductor shouted for us to move back. My hackles rose, an instinctive reaction from years of the white South African way of life. Who did he think he was?
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Ismé Bennie you write with such polish and simplicity about difficult political times and you make the reader want more. More of the people of that time and your own development away from South Africa. Keep the writing going!
Bennie has done it again. She has the ability to seamlessly stitch together an era of joy & evil, good & brutality, plenty & poverty…White & Black–the age-old addage for opposites–in her calm, yet penetrating fashion. She never succumbs to overstatement. I agree with TM-F: keep that writing flowing!
As always, Isme makes me feel like I am there with her – I don’t know how she does it but she evokes the period so intimately, I feel I’ve experienced South Africa, too, even though I have never been there. When is the book coming out? lovely as always.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and for colouring in the past, both historically and you-personally. Am looking forward to the next chapter!
Ms. Bennie is such a wonderful storyteller. I feel as if I was there with her in time and place.
With the recent death of Mandela, this is a very timely piece. One that simply tells another perspective of the time. Excellent!.
You always want more. Isme’s writing reminds me of Hemingway -spare, very descriptive and strong narrative. Like everyone else here, I’d like to read more!
As a young South African, it is very interesting and eye-opening to read personal stories about ordinary people and how they managed to live during the apartheid days. This piece makes one understand that not everyone was happy, and that the system didn’t necessarily work for those whom it was “intended” to serve. If anything it made it difficult for everyone live and prosper. Your writing approach is raw, very welcoming to the reader, insightful and VERY well written. I would love to read more from you – and hopefully this will become a full novel someday.