The Ghost of Equality

In the Ghost of Equality, Catherine Higgs chronicles the public lives of D.D.T. Jabavu. As a college lecturer, an advocate for teachers and farmers, and a Methodist lay preacher, Jabavu argued for African rights to national and international audiences. In segregated South Africa, he saw himself as an interpreter between whites and blacks; from the 1920s through the 1940s he participated actively in black politics, cooperated with white liberal critics of the state, and lobbied sympathetic white politicians. In his later years, he found himself eclipsed by a resurgent African nationalism and by the apartheid state. Opposed to confrontation, he remained an advocate of peaceful negotiation, and the successes and pitfalls of his approach provide the map of his life and the measure of his contributions. Higg's study affords us a glimpse into the life of an early and important advocate for social change in South Africa.