Racism in the Novel

Amongst the South African communities, racism was extremely prevalent. Racism can be defined as “differentiating between races, distinguishing them as inferior or superior to another race/races.” These racist attitudes amongst South African people included different treatment of certain people, simply because they had different physical traits. This treatment extended into social and legal spheres, and was recognized as acceptable by the offenders.

The Power of One deals with the topic of racism in South Africa and distinguishes between three main groups: the Afrikaners (white people from Dutch colonies, also known as Boers), black (African) and coloured (Asians and Indians). The African government was run by Afrikaners; this government established the Apartheid. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word which means ‘apartness’. This word embodied what the regulation was about: maintaining segregation between the whites and the blacks. This was decided during the country’s industrialization in the 1930’s to 1940’s. Due to the rapid change that urbanization caused, ideas also developed, and the Apartheid was meant to give whites a better chance in the workforce. It was the sentiment of the white working class that they were being disempowered by the English-speaking, working black Africans.

Any types for protest from the black Africans against the segregation measure was punished, often by means of imprisonment and forced labour.

The effects of the policy made by the white government included separating territories for black and white people. The political rights for black people in white areas was stripped from them, and the black people were given separate areas of the workforce. Prejudice was also expressed through the language of the white Afrikaners, who disrespectfully called them “kaffirs”, or heathens. The idea that they were heathen was also strong, since the Afrikaners believed that it was impossible, impractical and ungodly for the different races and cultures to live together.