The Mirror at Midnight: A South African Journey

by Adam Hochschild

A “stunning blend of reportage, travelogue, history and meditation” by the New York Times–bestselling author of King Leopold’s Ghost (Publishers Weekly). National Book Award finalist Adam Hochschild brings a lifetime’s familiarity with South Africa to bear in this eye-opening examination of a critical turning point in that nation’s the Great Trek of 1836–39, during which Dutch-speaking white settlers, known as Boers, journeyed deep into the country’s interior to escape the British colonial administration.   The mass migration culminated with the massacre of indigenous Zulus in the 1838 Battle of Blood River. Looking at the tensions of modern South Africa through the dramatic prism of the nineteenth century, Hochschild vividly recreates the battle—and its contentious commemoration by rival groups 150 years later. In his epilogue, Hochschild extends his view to the astonishing political changes that have occurred in the country in recent decades—and the changes yet to be made.   Hochschild’s incisive take on these events, noted Nadine Gordimer, “is far more than an outsider’s perception of the drama of our country. Read him, in particular, to understand the rise of white extremism which is threatening the democratic vision of the African National Congress and its allied progressive constituency among people of all colors.”   “A good book for anyone who wants a succinct and precise account of how this fascinating country has got where it is. . . . This is a book I recommend warmly.” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu   “One of the most illuminating books ever written on contemporary South Africa.” —Publishers Weekly   “Thoroughly researched, immensely readable . . . A work of vivid reportage and astute political analysis.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Africa, South Africa, Reportage, Memoir, Travel

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Hochschild was born in New York City. As a college student, he spent a summer working on an anti-government newspaper in South Africa and subsequently worked briefly as a civil rights worker in Mississippi in 1964. Both were politically pivotal experiences about which he would later write in his book Finding the Trapdoor. He later was part of the movement against the Vietnam War, and, after several years as a daily newspaper reporter, worked as a writer and editor for the leftwing Ramparts magazine. In the mid-1970s, he was one of the co-founders of Mother Jones.

Hochschild's first book was a memoir, Half the Way Home: a Memoir of Father and Son (1986), in which he described the difficult relationship he had with his father. His later books include The Mirror at Midnight: a South African Journey (1990; new edition, 2007), The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin (1994; new edition, 2003), Finding the Trapdoor: Essays, Portraits, Travels (1997), which collects his personal essays and reportage, and King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998; new edition, 2006), a history of the conquest and colonization of the Congo by Belgium's King Léopold II. His Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves, published in 2005, is about the antislavery movement in the British Empire.

Hochschild has also written for The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and The Nation. He was also a commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Hochschild's books have been translated into twelve languages.

A frequent lecturer at Harvard's annual Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference and similar venues, Hochschild lives in San Francisco and teaches writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is married to sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild.

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Hoc...

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Hochschild's The Mirror at Midnight is part first-person expeirence from Hochschild's experience traveling through South Africa in 1988 and much larger part South African history.

Hochschild calls out this irony, but what was so clear to me were parallels between the invasive expansion of the Boers/Voortrekkers into inland South Africa under the dual justifications of religious rite and frustration with over-taxation from a foreign power and the expansion of white Americans through the west and south of what is now South America.

Hochschild's narrative bounces back and forth between SA of pre-1838 leading up to the 1838 battle between Voortrekkers and Zulus called the Battle of Blood River which is huge part of the Afrikaner nationalist mythology (the battle itself did happen, but is wrapped in myth) and the bi-centennial in 1988 which is national event for Afrikaners. Interspersed between these climactic developments are thorough histories of the origins of the country which is cloaked in racist inequality, violence, and greed.

The Boers, as portrayed here, are an unlikable lot. Hochschild admits at one point to having a begrudging respect for their go-it-alone mentality and their fierce independence, but I can't get on board with that. They ventured deep into Africa because they wanted to be alone and in doing so, they took what wasn't theirs and if they were challenged, they frequently killed anyone who opposed them and said/believed that all they were doing was the work of God; that it was all by religious rite. In fact, having gun powder was the main reason for their superiority in war. As one Boer said, "Next to God, we depend on our ammunition." Again, there's an unwritten brotherhood of sorts with Americans.

Hochschild's telling goes beyond pure facts of Boers and native Africans. He analyzes the psychology of the Boer history and points out the long-running theme of victimization that justifies so much of their exploitative endeavors in South Africa. Some of these are real or partially real (Piet Retieff's killing or the Great Murder) and are mythologized throughout time. This includes the Vow associated with the Battle of Blood River. At it's best, it's honoring forefathers. At it's worst, it's flat out self-serving lies like a former white Prime Minister attempting to make the claim that the Boers arrived in SA around the same time some of the tribes they encountered which is patently false. But these types of false narratives are what allow hundreds of years of exploitation to flourish. And it's the same type of nonsense I was taught in American public schools about Thanksgiving and the founding of a new nation which, when I was in school, was whitewashed of any accountability for pretty much wiping out entire Native American populations.

It's not just the historical parallels between SA and the US that caught my attention, but parallels between 1980s SA and present-day US. Hochschild writes: "Like the followers of Hitler, Mussolini, or the John Birch Society, what right-wing Afrikaners are most stirred by is images of betrayal in the present or of glory in the past ... These embittered white of the far right will for a power--and well-armed--lobby against further reforms of government plans of the future." This passage popped off the page as something applicable to present-day US with its whites feeling marginalized and fighting for their Civil War monuments. The mere threat of taking down these monuments is the betrayal Hochschild writes about.

Why do I care about the US in regards to this history of recent and historical SA? I guess because I live here and see so many correlations. Hochschild makes it clear that the SA of 1988 wasn't that much different from the US of 1988. The state-sanctioned violence of white people against blacks isn't the same here, but when we see unarmed blacks killed with impunity by police, well it brings the similarities to the surface and the history of SA becomes something more instructive for present-day US. No, we have no Mandela and 86% of our population isn't Native American or black. No, there is no apartheid. There is no ANC. It's not an apples to apples comparison, but it's similar enough to be worrying. There were embargoes against SA and meanwhile the US is viewed as a leader of this planet.

Hochschild quotes Breyten Breytenbach in something that could be applicable to the US today and was most definitely applicable to South Africa for over a hundred years:

"Looking into South Africa is like looking into the mirror at midnight....A horrible face, but one's own."

While reading, the ridiculousness of Afrikaners claiming South African land as their own for farming and mining; viewing native Africans as uncivilized, less-intelligent others is obvious. It's irrational and self-serving and was rightly critiqued by the rest of the of the world. Save for the bluntless of its racist execution, the foundations of Afrikaner South Africa are painfully similar to the those of the United States.

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the founders of Mother Jones magazine, and author of classic books about slavery and colonialism, Hochschild wrote this in the late 80s—with an excellent 2007 epilogue—just as the cracks in the apartheid system were appearing. In college, he had interned at an anti-apartheid magazine, well positioning him to note the differences in SA society and politics after several decades. His major report is on the Afrikaaners’ commemoration of a decisive battle against the Zulus 150 years before, threading this history with the shocking economic and social contrasts in SA life. The Afrikaaners see themselves under siege by a small black middle-class and an apartheid government inching out reforms. Along the way he shows us the almost unbelievable variety of cruelty, racism and ignorance dished out by whites against blacks as well as the rich tapestry of resistance culture before Mandela’s release. The disgraceful cooperation of Israel and the US is discussed, and should give us all pause.

[Beverley Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam was in S.A. for the 150th anniversary of the Trek (1838-1988). He tried to get a hold on the history and realizing that it is written in white he makes an effort to find and present the black view point. He returned to the 1994 election and for some observations 10 years later. He explained the “Grand Bargain” made to end apartheid: Blacks get the vote, whites keep the money. Things had actually gotten economially worse 10 years later. It hardly seems possible! One quote “The only thing worse than being exploited is not being exploited.” He has some astute observations about the ongoing rule of the ANC government. I related to his reference to “Sunny South Africa” this is the nice white vacation spot.

[Zuzanna Romanowska · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mniej ciekawa od poprzedniczki, może dlatego, że głównie o Afrykanerach i to okiem Amerykanina, ale można się trochę dowiedzieć; mówi raczej o historii RPA, niż o Wielkim Treku i b dobrze, bo to akurat nie jest aż takie ciekawe. Ale niesamowite uświadomić sb, że w apartheidzie tak naprawdę chodziło o pieniądze, o przywileje białej ludności, o wille, lepsze stanowiska i utrzymywanie całej klasy ludzi, którzy będą na to wszystko pracować. Książka kończy się obaleniem systemu i powstaniem współczesnej RPA, ale co z tego, jeśli o podziale dóbr niestety nikt nie słyszał, a czarna większość żyje w takich samych warunkach nędzy, jak wcześniej. I tylko garstka czarnoskórych mieszka teraz w nowoczesnych willach na dawnych osiedlach białych, jeszcze bardziej strzeżonych niż kiedyś.

[Piotr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wydłuża się lista tegorocznych książek, z których wrażenia zaczynam od słów "nie pamiętam"...
Bo naprawdę nie pamiętam, kiedy ostatnio czytałem tak dobry reportaż!
Ani trochę nie przeszkadza, że pisany był już kilka dekad temu. To, co może najbardziej w książce uderza - to jak niezwykle ona jest aktualna. Pandemia dodała jeszcze swoje - przerażające - dwa grosze. RPA jest piątym krajem na świecie z największą liczbą wykrytych zakażeń.

Czyta się po prostu z zapartym tchem. Mistrzowska, wybitna, robota.
A! I koniecznie trzeba - najlepiej zaraz po - sięgnąć po "Wypalanie traw" Wojciecha Jagielskiego - bardzo ciekawe post scriptum.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a thoughtful and well written examination of South Africa just before the end of apartheid. Hochschild presented what I thought seemed a balanced accounting of a controversial topic (he took the time to call out the hypocrisy of Americans deriding white South Africans a bunch of racists, when we act the same towards Native Americans). Some of it was abhorrent and difficult to read: learning about the government sponsored death squads, torture, and incarceration without legal proceedings was terrifying. It's a scary thing to think that so many of us are capable of participating in a system like that, or even enforcing it.

Probably the most sagacious point Hochschild made was that South Africa under Apartheid wasn't really unique. It was just a bit peculiar in that the global disadvantaged (black Africans, among others) were living shoulder to shoulder with the global privileged (white Europeans, among otheres). Normally we in the West get to be separated by oceans and continents from the people whose suffering and exploitation the global economy is built on. The only special thing about south Africans is that they had stronger psychological deflectors to deny the reality that they had to live in close proximity to. It's easier in the US to deny that your comfortable life is built on a system founded on the exploitation of the resource rich global south.

Also, I greatly enjoyed the framing of the present in terms of the historical recountings of the boer's trek, since this almost mythological period seems to heavily influence then current politics. I felt like 10 more pages of history would have greatly expanded my understanding though - a few pages on British colonialism, the Boer Wars, and independence would have added a lot of context.

[Krzysztof Maciejewski · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a reporter, the author commits an unforgivable sin - he is biased. And this is not even about the somewhat understandable bias of apartheid versus black South Africans. In his book, it's the Boers who are (pun intended only in Polish) the boogeyman. The crimes of the British - they were, after all, the ones who first instigated the Great Trek and then hogged the diamond and gold deposits of Transvaal, incidentally inventing concentration camps - are basically passed over in silence.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an act of historical reportage, this provides thoughtful first-person account of what, even as it was being written, were the mercifully declining days of Apartheid. What I found even more noteworthy reading in 2022 is as an eerie example of how white-supremacists the world around and throughout history use nostalgia, imbued with incomplete history and unmerited victimhood, to sustain cultures of violence and injustice. The book shows the playbook of how America's own white-supremacists are currently using a toxic blend of privatization, disenfranchisement, and grievance politics to further their own apartheid policies.

[george w machun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. This book is quite old, published before the ANC and Mandela took over to rule the country. In the last 30 years under ANC rule, South Africa has deteriorated rapidly, with most of the damage being felt by the black population. One-party rule for 30 years is not really a democracy, and the ANC is forecast to lose a majority in the elections in May 2024.

Nevertheless, the book brilliantly covers the history of the rise and fall of the Afrikaans from the 1800s. He points out the stunning parallels between SA and the US in their accounts of subjugating native populations to have a white rule at more or less the same time.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I typically quite like Hochschild's writing but I found this book a little too focused on the Afrikaners. I felt that he was almost glorifying them despite the fact that they were the ones responsible for apartheid in South Africa. There were some interesting anecdotes and he did speak with a number of different people. It was definitely a personalized account of his time in South Africa, but I found the amount of time he spent on the Afrikaners rather than the African communities a little off putting.

[Estelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai été un peu déçue par ce livre, mais je pensais que le sujet principal serait la guerre des Boers (ce qui n'était pas le cas) et je l'ai lu après "King Leopold's Ghost" qui était admirablement bien écrit et probablement le meilleur livre d'Adam Hochschild.
Si le livre est plutôt centré sur l'apartheid et certaines parties pas toujours passionnantes, j'ai tout de même découvert quantité de détails intéressants autour de l'Afrique du Sud. Il faudrait peut-être que je le relise à l'avenir pour l'apprécier à sa juste valeur.

[Jane Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

South Africa Story

Good history book. Letting us in on the mythology and history of the white South African allows us to know what ere they were coming from. The epilogue is a good, understandable summary of the overthrow of the political state. It is a good book f o e Americans to read/

[Mickey Bits · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would guess most Americans are unfamiliar with the history of South Africa beyond "Apartheid: BAD." (that's not to discount this scourge, btw). This book takes a deep and interesting dive to the background of South Africa. I believe it was originally published while Apartheid was still official SA policy. This book opens a window to the somewhat esoteric world of South Africa.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reportaż o historii Burów w Republice Południowej Afryki. I wydarzeniach, które spowodowały - poza ortodoksyjnym kalwinizmem i przywiązaniem do konserwatywnych wartości - powstanie afrykanerskiego nacjonalizmu

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perceptive take on South Africa. Hochschild spreads the guilt out. He compares the infiltration of the whites in the 1830s with the American spread to the west coast. The heartbreaking part was how many decades this went on.

[Oksana Bodnar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książka baaardzo ciekawa zwłaszcza dla mnie gdzie nic nie wiem o RPA ale też nie porwała mnie aż tak

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a writer!

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like history, this short history of South Africa is a readable one, using the Battle at Blood River to build a fiction-like plot tension. It is an extremely painful book to read; unfortunately, the parallels to America are all too clear. There is an epilogue that takes the changes in South Africa up to 2006, but the changes are not nearly enough...I guess they never are.
By the way, Adam Hochchild is the also the author of King Leopold's Ghost about Belgian King Leopold's treatment of the Congo...also very painful, as in gut-wrenching, to read.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

South African history is more volatile than I imagined. With the Boers conflicting with the Zulu's in 1838 (and many times before) and the Great Trek that proceeded, the history of South Africa is one of cultural significance not known all over the world. The Mirror at Midnight is an interesting look into the history of a country where segregation and racism were the way of life until apartheid ended in 1990, and are still thought of as normal by the Afrikaners.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

American journalist, Adam Hochschild, recounts South African history through the lens of the "present day" (written in 1988). Because of the year written, this book captures South African history before all of its changes but as it was unknowingly on the cusp of such changes. I found the book most helpful because it helped me see the throughline of the Afrikaner people throughout South Africa's history. It helps me understand ongoing racial tensions in South Africa today.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly well-written; reads like a novel even though it is meticulously researched non-fiction. Helpful in understanding the history of apartheid, and complicating my understanding of a historical narrative that is usually taught, with good reason, in very simplistic terms--especially the British versus the Afrikaners, the founding myth of the Afrikaners, the "independent" homelands, the process of co-optation of some black leaders, etc.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the begining, this was a good intro to the history of south africa. Then there was some really tedious info, and i thought the book was a typical investigative journalism book that seems really interesting, but turns out really boring... But in the end, the writer redeems himself with his description of modern south africa. fascinating...

[Noelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aside from finding it informative, i liked how he linked the traditions that have continued by interspersing the 19th century and 20th century events. It's dated but that lends to the sense of disbelief that South Africa didn't completely implode.

[Janna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good book for getting an idea on the treatment of Black South Africans during apartheid. This print included an updated epilogue touching on a few topics after Mandela's release, which offered a great, albeit short, intro. to post-apartheid South Africa.

[Lyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything by Adam Hochschild is worth reading! He brings history and social commentary to life in the most compelling way. Enormously recommended.

[Joseph Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Juxtaposes South Africa’s nationalist myths with the reality of apartheid in practice. Which feels particularly important right now.