📣 JOIN US at the launch of Under Smuts's Rule at Exclusive Books on Wednesday, 3 December 2025 at 18h00.
In his new book, prize-winning author Bongani Ngqulunga examines how Smuts’s political life affected black South Africans.
Analysing letters, speeches and other documents, the book unpacks Smuts’s thinking and how it affected his approach to the franchise, segregation and suppression of dissent. Tracing the currents in black politics, it presents the views of African leaders on Smuts and his policies – figures such as Sol Plaatje, D.D.T. Jabavu, Z.K. Matthews, A.B. Xuma, and, later on, Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela.
The book demonstrates how Smuts evolved in his views, eventually coming to recognise that segregation had failed. But the reforms he introduced in the 1940s were too little, too late, and were swept away by the National Party and its policy of apartheid.
Giving a balanced view that is both respectful and critical, Under Smuts’s Rule is a vital addition to the literature on Smuts and to South African history.
A vital contribution to our understanding of 20th-century South Africa and the legacies we still reckon with today!
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