About this ebook
Ten years after democracy arrived in South Africa here is a book that gives a voice to the Afrikaner, speaking in English about the ‘Miracle’ of the peaceful transition to majority rule – their worst nightmare.
This is a book that goes beyond politics with the very human story of one man, giving insight into the hearts and minds of a people struggling to find their identity as white Africans trying to secure their place in Africa. They are seen through the eyes of a Boerejood – a half-Afrikaans, half-Jewish writer – who struggles himself with issues of identity, reflecting the struggle around him.
In the final analysis Boerejood is about the universal human struggle between good and evil, black and white, justice and injustice, love and hate – all that defines us as being human.
It takes the reader on an astonishing and remarkable journey of discovery, the destination being the soul of the Afrikaner, and an answer to why these people accepted black majority rule with relatively no struggle, after years of racist persecution of their black and brown neighbours.
“Reading Boerejood is like being a voyeur at a hugely animated dinner party where you sit and listen to highly charged debate with intelligent people locking horns. They make fascinating points and then incredibly inane and naïve remarks. Then they dazzle with astute observations. You are hooked and hang on to every word.”- Cape Times
About the author
Julian Roup is the author of three non-fiction books: a children’s book, A Day In the Life of an MP; A Fisherman in the Saddle, a memoir of growing up in South Africa; and Boerejood, which explores the miracle of peaceful change to democratic rule in South Africa in 1994.
Boerejood received critical praise from many, including the Financial Times in the UK, which described it as: “Brilliant, engaged, intelligent, personal….and funny”. The FT ran a 2,000-word feature on the book as its Weekend Magazine cover story in May 2006.
Julian Roup has a background which combines marketing, journalism and public relations.
Born in South Africa in 1950, he lived in Cape Town for the first 30 years of his life. He has a journalism degree from Rhodes University in South Africa, and worked at the Cape Times and the Cape Argus before emigrating to England in 1980, where he started off writing for the Mid Sussex Times.
He founded his own PR consultancy, Bendigo Communications, in 1993. Clients have included: Virgin Atlantic, Bonhams, Bradford & Bingley, and the Development Agency for the Western Cape in South Africa. He has also created PR campaigns for clients including the British Army, Black Horse Agencies, Christie's, the Government of Malta, the London Underground, British Rail InterCity, NSPCC, and the RSPCA.
He worked as Director of Press and Marketing for Bonhams, the international fine art auction company, for 12 years
