Racism in Nadine Gordimer’s "Burger’s Daughter"

 

Burger’s Daughter (1979) is a story about Rosemarie Burger and her politically involved family. Her father Lionel Burger, was a political activist in the South African Communist Party, together with his wife Cathy Burger. Lionel Burger uttered these words at his trial: ‘‘I took up then the pursuit of the end to racialism and injustice that I have continued and shall continue as long as I live’’. He was against the oppression of the blacks and any form of injustice against them.

The first example of racial melancholy is portrayed in Burger’s Daughter by the following statement, ‘‘A thousand black and white people had come to the funeral of Cathy Burger, his wife, and Rosa’s mother, some years before’’. People from all walks of life came to Rosa’s mother’s funeral. This was a true sign of someone who had worked across racial lines. They came to bid farewell to a political stalwart. Her work for the Communist party and for the previously disadvantaged people of South Africa was evident in the number and kind of people who attended her funeral. At the trial of Lionel Burger, some stalwarts of the liberation struggle from both races made a nostalgic appearance: ‘‘Two or three men and women who had been hidden away by house arrest for many years appeared on the platform like actors making a come-back with the style and rhetoric of their time’’ . Stalwarts of the liberation are compared to actors making a come-back, and their look and style epitomizes their time.

 

    Another portrayal of racial melancholy in Burger’s Daughter is shown in terms of the ownership of land: ‘‘The children of the white people would not make it in their white suburb and would not inherit the house bought on the municipal loan available to whites, or slot safely into jobs reserved for whites against black competition’’.

     At independence, things in South Africa became difficult for the white people; they had to apply for loans in the normal way like the majority, the oppressed black people. In terms of employment, the minority had to go through interviews like everyone else. They were not just appointed in posts that used to be exclusively reserved for them.

     In the novel Burger’s Daughter, Rosa’s parents were not the typical white couple who hated black people, because they wanted racial equality. Their outlook on life is expressed in the following quote: “Being white constitutes a counter-definition whose existence my father and mother were already arguing between dancing to the gramophone at the workers’ club”.  The Burger couple wanted to dance to the gramophone at the employees’ club without being accused of doing wrong. Being white, according to Rosa’s parents, was raging within them. They were not at a loss entirely on their point of departure, because they chose to fight what was right in their eyes, taking a bold decision that will change their lives forever.

     The fight for the liberation struggle was to be achieved by the majority blacks, but also with the help of a small group of white revolutionaries. However, this select group of white people had to make a clear distinction between class and black consciousness, so that they were not blinded or lose focus on the ultimate prize. This duality is portrayed by who should lead or be at the forefront of the struggle. As the novelist writes : “The future he was living for until the day he died can be achieved only by black people with the involvement of the small group of white revolutionaries who have solved the contradiction between black and class consciousness, and qualify to make unconditional common cause with the struggle for full liberation, e.g., a national and social revolution.”

     Rosa’s childhood friend, Baasie, suffered an internal conflict regarding the depiction of Lionel Burger. Baasie (“little boss”) was not happy with what Rosa was telling people at the gathering in Europe. He did not like the attention that Lionel Burger was receiving, and the way he was being portrayed as a martyr. He believed that the blacks who fought for the liberation of the country should also be held in high esteem like Lionel Burger. They also suffered, and some were still in prison for their role: “Listen, there are dozens of our fathers sick and dying like dogs, kicked out of the locations when they can’t work anymore. Getting old and dying in prison. I know plenty blacks like Burger. It’s nothing, it’s us, we must be used to it, and it’s not going to show on English television.”

After she spoke to Baasie, Rosa did a lot of soul-searching. After the heated talk with Baasie, Rosa started to question herself about her identity. She started questioning her role in all the political turmoil that the country of her birth was in. It was a very important time of her life. She wanted to know where she belonged and what was going on around her and the world at large: “Now you are free……… Tony is dead and there is no other child but me, for her. Two hundred and seventeen days with the paisley scarf in my pocket, while the witness came in and out the dock condemning my father. My mother is dead and there is only me, there, for him. Only me. My studies, my work, my love affairs must fit in with the twice monthly visits to the prison, for life, as long as he lives-if he had lived.”

     In the novel Burger’s Daughter, the blacks’ inadequacies are shown through the type of work they did and their dress code: ‘‘Real espresso was brought to a little iron table by a black waiter dressed up in stripped trousers, black waistcoat and cheese-cutter’’. The waiters must wear a uniform that was provided by the owners, and they have to serve real espresso to the white customers. The fact that they, the indigenous people are the ones serving the customers is a deliberate racist act by the owners who are white.

     The critical race theory is essential in this regard, as it deals with white supremacist’s ideals. The white person thinks he/she is superior to the black person and can control this marginalised group. The black person is exploited, and this is evident in the dress code of the waiter. The blacks were considered as obedient individuals who did what their masters wanted them to do. This is illustrated in the quote from Burger’s Daughter: ‘‘They’d have a black if it was allowed to have blacks living in, because you can control a black, he’s got to listen to you’’. A typical Afrikaner man controlled the black person through manipulation, money and employment so that they could be their slaves forever. This shows that racism was used to control most of the indigenous inhabitants to the benefit of the elite.

     The difference between the people in a racist society are apparent in Burger’s Daughter. The differences are shown in the physical appearance of the groups. Division and contrast were essential to the dispensation of that time, and this is shown in the statement: ‘‘In the church to which my aunt drove us on Sunday morning, children clean and pretty, we sat among the white neighbours from farms round about and from the dorp.’’

     A further illustration of the appearance of the oppressed is portrayed when the waiter “would be in his place down under the trees out of sight of the farmhouses, where black people sang hymns and beat old oil drums, or in the tin church in the dorp location.’’ Thus, racial segregation is illustrated by the black waiter who attends church faraway, in a place that is designated for black people. This example confirms that the blacks were racially discriminated against by their masters, as they were not granted the same privileges.

     In Burger’s Daughter, black people are portrayed as vulnerable and struggling to make ends meet. The first example that shows the destitute and plight of the black person is represented in the following manner: “Black women selling mealies sat with babies crawling from under the coloured towels they wore as shawls……. Black children coming up behind humble parents were in rags or running barefoot, bundled from above the knees in school uniforms that could be afforded only once in years…”

     The vulnerability of black people is further illustrated in the following quotation: “All this ordered life surrounded, coated, swaddled Rosa; the order of Saturday, the order of family hierarchy, the order of black people out in the street and white people in the shade of the hotel stoep.” While the white people enjoy the protection of the shade of the hotel and are advantaged, the black people remain destitute. The social hierarchy positions black people out in the streets, in the sun, where society has put them. According to the white men at the hotel, there is no place for the black waiter among them.

     In Burger’s Daughter, racial issues are also shown through the symbolic use of the swimming pool, which was a luxury for black people. Some old black people were only then learning how to swim. On the contrary, the white girl, Rosa, was taught how to swim when she was a small child. “The swimming-pool remained to give pleasure to other people, black children who had never been into a pool before could be taught to swim there by my father.” The racial truth of lack of resources is portrayed in this example. Blacks cannot afford to have or construct a swimming pool, so they go to a white man’s place to learn how to swim. The unequal distribution of resources was thus evident at the time.

     White people regarded the blacks as errand boys and street sweepers. They were insignificant people who added no value to life. This is portrayed in the novel in the following: “If the white people in the shop saw only errand boys and tea-girls and street sweepers instead of black people, now they saw Marisa.”

     The blacks buy stale bread while the fresh bread is reserved for the elite and the white customers. Even when the whites are buying fruit, they are given the freshest fruit but the blacks are given the half rotten fruit. The following quote depicts this unfairness: ‘‘When I go to the café to buy bread, they give the kaffir yesterday’s stale. When he goes for fruit, the kaffir gets the half-rotten stuff the whites won’t buy. That is black.’’

     In the novel Burger’s Daughter, racial segregation and acceptance is evident when Gordimer writes: “The white workers belong to the exploiting class, and they take part in the suppression of the blacks. The black man is not fighting for equality with whites. Blackness is the black man refusing to believe the white man’s way of life is the best for blacks.” The argument of what is best for the native surfaces in this heated discussion of friends from different races. According to the black political activists, the white man’s way of doing things is not the best for the natives, as the two races are different. The suppression of the natives is compounded by the white workers who exploit their black counterparts at any given moment. They do this through racial discrimination, wages, and in terms of movement.