DF Malan and the Rise of Afrikaner Nationalism

Today grimfaced photographs of NP leaders like DF Malan and his successors have come to symbolise a system of racial oppression. Yet, when Malan was asked on his deathbed what he considered the most important service he had rendered during his political career, he answered, ‘that I could serve my nation; that I could unite my people’. This biography tries to understand this contradiction: how a man who earnestly sought to build a nation could also contribute to a legacy that continues to scar a country.