The story is mildly interesting and won an important award. It is, however, rich in details and thin on events. I agree with one reviewer that this is a short story with a great amount of detail. ( )

In this provocative novel, a son looks back at the life of his father who was never able to come to terms with his role as a colonial ruler in an African country. His father George is a sympathetic character who was born in Africa and passionately loved and respected the culture, history and traditions of the Xhosa, Zulu and other indigenous groups he worked with. When the National Party came to power, George feared that "these Nationalists will want to treat the black man as an unperson." One of the party's first steps was to put in place rules by which the South African population was to be registered according to race and to be issued individual id cards. While de facto segregation had been in place for centuries, the de jure segregation took it to a new level. George made his views known to his superiors, and he was sent to more and more remote posts. He tried to find a job outside the government, but was unsuccessful. He told himself that even though the political direction of the country was not good, at least he could try to do some good "from the inside."

Then in the course of his duties as a magistrate, he has to deal with a "convoluted and gory business" which caused great distress in his district, which previously had been at peace. Most of the trials he had presided over had been minor administrative affairs, but, "this one looked like it would go to the heart of the lives of the people of these lands." However, he tells himself that since he had mastered the language and its nuances he would be able to make a wise decision.

As the trial proceeds, one of the defendants says to him, "I understand that we will be found guilty of these beatings....This I understand. But I wish to ask this: What does it have to do with you, Sir?" George experienced a moment of sudden clarity, and thereafter always referred to this as "Ntabaka's Question." His constant thought thereafter was ,"What right had he to judge anything at all about these people, never mind the effort he was so proud of putting into understanding them and learning their languages? It was a right conferred by conquest alone...."

While George's world view has changed, he is still left with the dilemma that he has no other home: "If you are like me and are told you do not belong here in Africa and are not wanted here, where do you belong? I cannot just pack up and go home: where is my home but here? I am nobody's settler. I have never set foot in England in my life." But can he call himself an African merely by accident of his birth?

George is sympathetic and conflicted. The issues his life raises are important and difficult, and there are no readily apparent answers. ( )

This is the touching story of an English born civil servant who served as Native Commissioner in many parts of South Africa for many years from the 1930s to the 1960s. Dedicated and conscientious to a fault, George Jameson, is also an expert in the local languages, the history and culture of the tribes of the region. More and more, this kind, quiet, and sensitive man, despite himself and his sympathy and convictions about the eminent rights of the black people, finds himself inadvertently drawn as a pawn into the politics of the new government, indeed efficiently carrying out even against all his principles, the policy of apartheid. On the surface, he remains a highly competent and good civil servant, but unbeknownst to all, including his own family, he goes through a long and deep struggle about his role in the instruments of apartheid, and his inability to assert his convictions. We only know about this intense phase, his doubts, his fears, his anger, his frustration, his moods, his depression, 40 years after his death from thousands of documents and records he meticulously kept in a box all those years. The narrator is his son, himself trying to fight his demons, who goes through the stuff and it is both painful and liberating for him to piece together parts of the story of an affectionate father he barely knew.

This novel feels so true, so real, and speaks to the heart perhaps because it is partly based on the author's own story, and there is no attempt at embellishment. There are no extraordinary characters, no very exciting events, no fireworks, no clever dialogues so that the narrative seems dry at times, but the story draws us in deeply to the life of this troubled family, and what we do not forget is how the system in an unobtrusive but certain and lingering way, destroyed an honest man's ideals of good and fair governance for both white and blacks. In the end, he paid tragically for his inability to accept and make sense of this changing order.

Johnson is a well-known journalist and a leading figure in South Africa's media, and this novel, his first, won several awards. He now heads the Nelson Mandela foundation. I recommend this book to those who have an interest in looking at the issue of apartheid from somebody who was a necessary but reluctant cog in the wheel. ( )