Joe Schurer

Miss Bonsmann
2/11/16
Nadine Gordimer: Political Activist and Author
Explosions rang throughout the cities of South Africa. Crowds of people fed up with the
long standing system of racial segregation began to riot and protest. Under the policy of
apartheid, South Africa enforced racial segregation throughout society. The rights and
associations of the majority black population were suppressed. This racial segregation occurred
in South Africa since the Dutch empire controlled the Cape of Good Hope in 1765. Nadine
Gordimer grew up on the other side of segregation, as a part of the privileged white middle class.
Her voracious reading gave her glimpse of the outside world, a world without government
mandated racial separation, and she developed a strong hatred for South Africas systemic
segregation. Nadine Gordimer helped bring about the end of apartheid through her life, literature,
and political activism. Gordimers life led to her eventual involvement in the fight against
apartheid.
Nadine Gordimer was born November 20, 1923 in Gauteng, South Africa to immigrant
parents in a small gold town (Nadine Gordimer). As a child, Gordimer grew up on the
privileged side of apartheid living in white suburban South Africa. She enjoyed reading and used
books as a window to view the rest of the world without apartheid. Gordimer learned about
writing from reading the works of other authors: [On her childhood] I was the Gypsy, tinkering
with words second-hand, mending my own efforts at writing by learning from what I read, for
my school was the local library. Proust, Chekhov and Dostoevsky, to name only a few to whom I
owe my existence as a writer, were my professors. In that period of my life, yes, I was a living
proof of the theory that books are made out of other books (Gordimer, Nadine). Through this

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period, Gordimer developed strong political ideas and became an ardent supporter for the end of
apartheid and for equality. She attended university and married a refugee from Nazi Germany
who fought for the British Army (Wstberg). Gordimer became recognized all over the world for
speaking out against apartheid. Nadine Gordimer was a Goodwill Ambassador for the United
Nations and was awarded the French Legion of Honour for her continuing work to achieve
equality in South Africa despite being harassed by the South African government. (Nadine
Gordimer). During her life, she won countless other awards for her work, and even after the fall
of apartheid she continued the fight for equality. Nadine Gordimer died July 13, 2014 in
Johannesburg, South Africa (Nadine Gordimer). Gordimers life was a large influence on her
literature.
Gordimer used fiction to provide the rest of the world a perspective on the real events
taking place in South Africa. Gordimer believed fiction was a more effective method then other
means of communicating history (Clingman 32). The stories Nadine Gordimer wrote contained
fictional people and some fictional events, but portrayed all of these against the backdrop of deep
rooted segregation. Gordimer wrote 13 novels, 200 short stories, and volumes of essays
(Wstberg). Some of Nadine most notable books were The Lying Days (1953), A World of
Strangers (1959), and The Late Bourgeois World (1966). In her writing her major themes were
love and politics. Gordimers literature helped tell the rest of the world about the situation in
South Africa: her novels brought home the shaking realities of South Africa during the
apartheid era (Gordimer, Nadine). Her fiction novels helped make the struggle for equality in
South Africa personal to people who previously cared or did very little to change the status quo.
Her literature fought back against the apartheid policies: It was another kind of vindication: of
the triumph of art over oppression, of the ethics of writing in the context of evil, of baring the

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truths of the present and imaging alternative futures (Clingman 2). The Lying Days was
Gordimers first effort to focus on the expanding anti-apartheid movement In South Africa. A
World of Strangers depicts the division within South African society and focuses on liberalism in
South Africa and the international community. The Late Bourgeois World portrays the choice
between passive liberalism and sabotage and was intended to reflect nelson Mandelas decision
to switch from passive liberalism to direct sabotage ("Gordimer, Nadine"). However, as
Gordimer wrote about racial division many predicted she would no longer be successful once the
era of segregation ended, yet her literary work continued after the end of apartheid (Clingman 2).
A great deal of Nadine Gordimers literature was her way of making political statements.
Nadine Gordimer played a large role in the politics of South Africa. For a long time
Gordimer had held strong anti-apartheid view, but she was not always extremely involved. She
entered the political struggle when her best friend Betitie Du Toit was arrested in 1960 for
protesting apartheid (Wstberg). Gordimer joined the African National Congress, which resisted
discrimination, while it was illegal to do so. Even though as a white person in South Africa she
possessed many privileges, she still took a stand for what she thought was right. When many
wealthy South Africans fled the country, she stayed behind to be a part of the fight against
apartheid (Wstberg). Gordimer went as far as harboring ANC fighters in her home. The
government of South Africa threatened Gordimer and banned her books for a time, yet she was
unwilling to accept the conditions of racial partition. While some protested or fought with guns
and bombs, Nadine Gordimer fought with her books: She was one of the guerillas of the
imagination (Wstberg). Through her political involvement Gordimer worked to change South
Africa for the better.

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After decades of fighting and protest, the brutal apartheid system finally came to an end.
An era of darkness in South Africa finally came to a close. All of the people who had fought to
see the end of a government mandated segregation had won. Nadine Gordimer, through her life,
literature, and politics, was one of the people who helped bring the brutal system to an end. She
was born as a white person in apartheid South Africa, however through reading she formed
strong opinions and took a stand against of the race based partition the permeated South African
society. In her literature, Gordimer wrote fiction that told the whole world about the realities of
racism in South Africa. She was also heavily involved in politics, and she helped the African
National Congress end the long standing policy of racial separation. Simply by taking a stance
and writing about the apartheid, Nadine Gordimer made South Africa and the world a better
place for everyone.

Works Cited
Clingman, Stephen. The Novels of Nadine Gordimer: History from the Inside. London: Allen &
Unwin, 1986. Print.
"Gordimer, Nadine." UNHCR News. The UN Refugee Agency, n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2016.
"Nadine Gordimer." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 May 2015.
Web. 12 Jan. 2016.
Wstberg, Per. "Nadine Gordimer and the South African Experience." Nadine Gordimer and the
South African Experience. The Nobel Prize, 26 Apr. 2001. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.

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