Afrikaners on victims

Press, 23 March 1985, Page 22

Afrikaners on victims

Circles in a Forest. By Dalene Matthee. Viking, 1984. 368 pp. $22.95. Much has been written in English about the Knysna Forest near the southern tip of Africa. Dalene Matthee tells the story from the viewpoint of an Afrikaner who blames the English exploiters for raping the forest of its grand trees and herds of elephant. She maintains that the truth has been cleverly covered over and the blame for the exploitation wrongly attributed. Her. thoughts are blatantly exposed in this

novel, which addresses not only exploitation of the forest, but also the exploitation of the Afrikaner by the English. The story is based round the life ■of Saul Barnard and his efforts to save a majestic elephant from humiliation. During the search he recalls milestones in his life, all of which graphically illustrate the author’s thoughts on exploitation. “Circles in a Forest” provides a unique insight into the Afrikaner view of the cause of much of South Africa’s troubles. — Geoff Mein.