The Last Trek: A New Beginning; The Autobiography (Signed and Inscribed)

The former president of South Africa describes his life and political career, documenting the changes in South Africa, including the end of apartheid, the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, and the country's first true democratic elections in 1984.

Although this memoir contains far more political blow-by-blow than personal revelation, it will reward close reading. De Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela in 1993, puts himself forward as a sincere but initially unimaginative fellow, a man who imbibed Afrikaner nationalism and couldn't even conceive of a South Africa without apartheid, which he presents as a product of his times. But most readers will quickly gather that de Klerk is spinning an alternate history: he claims that the apartheid government spent big sums to do justice to all South Africans, argues that sanctions delayed change more than hastened it and downplays police responsibility for the watershed Soweto riots. As a cabinet minister during the 1980s, de Klerk was not encouraged to question the security forces and even now distances himself from the murder and torture committed on his watch. As for the far-reaching reforms he proposed in 1990, including the release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of the African National Congress, de Klerk writes that they grew not from a conversion experience but from sober analysis. He wrings little drama from this magnificent, calculated gamble. In the book's second half, devoted to the ensuing negotiations about the shape of post-apartheid South Africa, de Klerk presents a highly negative portrait of Nelson Mandela, who criticized de Klerk regularly for the government contribution to the violence, even at the Nobel ceremony. De Klerk does convey that the saintly Mandela has his petty side, and that the ANC's revolutionary rhetoric has not served it well. But he will convince few with his contention that neither side during South Africa's epic conflict held moral superiority. He serves his legacy best when articulating his goals of better government and economic growth, and his hope that party politics will be based on values, not race. Photos.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A strangely distanced, often stilted autobiography by the last white leader of South Africa. Like Mikhail Gorbachev, de Klerk is a fundamentally tragic figure: someone with the courage to abjure his most heartfelt inclinations and bravely lead his country forwardand himself straight out of power. There was little in his background to suggest he would be the man to end apartheid. He was an assiduous, ambitious National Party stalwart, reliably punching the clock in a variety of ministerial assignments, delivering competence but never controversy, slowly climbing the slippery pole of politics . . . and then he changed everything. Modern political autobiographies arent noted for their Rousseauian self-revelations, but de Klerk is particularly, even frustratingly opaque. While he provides a useful account of what happened, detailing the minutiae of the negotiating process leading to the creation of the ``new South Africa,'' he seldom shares the all-important ``why.'' Unsurprisingly, he claims no knowledge of any of the recently revealed darker activities of the apartheid military-security complex, many of which occurred while he was state president. Yet de Klerk doesnt shy away from discussing numerous times when he felt slighted or mistreated by Nelson Mandela, whom he depicts as engaging in especially brash and brutal politics (so different from the chummy confraternity of white rule) and also as much more bitter than the official hagiographic portrait. The end of apartheid may have been a moral struggle, but it was above all a grimy political process, and the most fascinating part of this account is the eggshell dance of adversaries, the shifting coalitions, the victories and defeats. Philosophically, perhaps even morally, de Klerk may have shifted, but he never turned from what is perhaps his truest identity: master political operator. Like South Africas gold deposits, a lot of the value here is buried deep. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

De Klerk, South Africa's last president under apartheid, writes his personal history in the context of that nation's transition to a free multiracial society. De Klerk was primed for government service, following in the footsteps of his father, a government official and a staunch supporter of apartheid. De Klerk's political, cultural, and social roots were centered in the Afrikaners' belief in their racial superiority and the attendant need for separate homelands for indigenous Africans. Yet, De Klerk sees himself as a centrist, if not progressive on the race issue. He provides interesting insights regarding his political predecessors and associates: John Vorster, P. W. Botha, and Hendrik Verwoerd. Yet he shades his characterization of Nelson Mandela, whom he released from 27 years of imprisonment on political charges, in an ambivalent, if contradictory, light. Though political consensus was necessary to achieve one-man one-vote democracy in South Africa, De Klerk reflects an undertone of racial difference that stubbornly persists. Despite his personal contradictions, De Klerk provides valuable insights on one of the most pernicious political systems of the twentieth century. Vernon Ford

"Born into a family that had been closely involved in the whole historic development of the Afrikaner nation and its struggle for freedom," de Klerk has provided readers with a penetrating look into his life as a young attorney in Vereeniging, a local leader of the National Party, an MP, a member of Afrikaner Broederbond, a cabinet member, leader of the National Party in the Transvaal, leader of the House of Assembly, leader of the National Party, Acting President, State President, Executive Deputy President, sharer of the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela, and opposition leader and retired statesman. Interestingly, de Klerk maintains that the National Party did not introduce apartheid to South Africa but "only applied it much more methodically and systematically"; he admits that fear of dominance by the overwhelming black majority was the policy's driving force. Overall, this is a thoughtful and engaging account of de Klerk's life and convictions and of the transformation of South Africa itself. De Klerk's autobiography is a valuable and stimulating contribution to South African history.AEdward G. McCormack, Univ. of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast, Long Beach
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.