The Mirror at Midnight (1990; 2007)

I found Hochschild's book in a neighbourhood book box. I'm always keen to know more about the histories of the southern part of Africa, particularly its colonization, the creation of states named after people (Cecil Rhodes-ia), or those states that speak strictly to their geography (South Africa, for example), which is a very Dutch thing to do -- to speak practically. And a very white thing of me to say, given that I benefit from that privilege.

It was not lost on me that the cover of Hochschild's book echoes James Earle Fraser's sculpture End of the Trail (1894), which features an American Indian slumped over his horse, spear pointed downwards. For years, white people of all stars and stripes have looked at this image with sympathy, but more recently, as an image perpetrated by an Anglo-European colonial power whose intent is to melt the American Indian in its pot. With that in mind, how are we to look at this image of the young Afrikaner on the cover of Hochschild's book? With sympathy? Or with a counter-narrative towards the revitalization of the Sunny South Afrikaan way of life?