From segregation to separation

“The Lie of Apartheid” is a provocatively titled book about South Africa by Arthur Kemp, provocative since the author is a White separatist. He doesn't really oppose racism or race segregation. His quarrel is with the specific form of segregation practiced in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. His “alternative” is a different form of segregation.

Kemp is a Rhodesian who served in the South African apartheid regime's military and police. He initially supported the Conservative Party, which stood for strict enforcement of the apartheid policy and hence opposed F W De Klerk's negotiations with the ANC. Later, Kemp adopted a position similar to that of the AWB. Kemp was briefly suspected of involvement in the murder of ANC/SACP leader Chris Hani, something he discusses at some length in his book. Eventually, Kemp left South Africa and moved to Britain, where he supported the British National Party (BNP). Today, he is an independent blogger and publishes books under the “Ostara Publications” moniker. I think it's fair to say that Ostara is essentially fascist.

“The Lie of Apartheid” consists of nine essays on South Africa, Zimbabwe and the issue of “race” more generally. Kemp argues that apartheid was unsustainable, since the small White elite simply couldn't rule a Black-majority nation for any length of time. Despite apartheid laws, Blacks and Whites were never *really* separate, since most menial labor was done by Blacks. This sometimes took absurd forms, as when “Whites only” public toilets were cleaned by Blacks, or “White only” restaurants had all-Black staffs. Many White South Africans had Black servants. Most of the workers in the mines or at the farms were, of course, also Black. Kemp believes that it’s an iron law of history that the “race” which comprises the majority in a given society will inevitably stamp its “racial” character on it. On a more concrete level, he points out that the Whites simply didn't have enough military and political muscle to control the Blacks once the ANC had acquired mass influence and was prepared to use it. Kemp also believes that the White population was split. Most English-speakers and Jews were opposed to apartheid and resented the strong, almost quasi-Masonic, political power of the Boer. The Boer themselves split during the 1980's, when a “liberal” faction emerged right inside the DRC, the main Boer Christian denomination (previously a staunch supporter of apartheid).

Kemp's alternative to apartheid is the creation of a White homeland on a smaller territory than today's South Africa. All non-Whites will be permanently barred from this racially pure White republic. The original sin of apartheid was the idea that the Boer (or Whites in general) could sustain themselves by utilizing Black African labor. This made the White oppressors ultimately dependent on the Black oppressed. Kemp also believes that it gave the Blacks an excellent opportunity to utilize White medicine and science, and hence breed out of proportion. By contrast, Israel was established by Jewish settlers in Palestine doing their own work, rather than becoming dependent on Arab labor. Hence, Israel became a sustainable, Jewish-majority state. Interestingly, Kemp is very pessimistic about the prospects in South Africa: his White separatism would mean a smaller territory, a lower standard of living and substantially more work for the South African Whites, who are used to the opposite arrangement.

Apart from his calls for White (or perhaps Boer) separatism, “The Lie of Apartheid” contains essays on Robert Mugabe's so-called land reform campaign in Zimbabwe, on the Chris Hani assassination, and on Mahatma Gandhi. Kemp claims that Gandhi was an anti-Black racist who also disliked the lower Hindu castes!

Although I strongly dislike the political tendency of this little volume (being an anti-racist, I oppose both apartheid and “separatism”), I admit that Arthur Kemp is a relatively good writer. The book could be of some interest to “far right watchers” or South Africa watchers.