Essays express fury over white insensitivity

SORRY NOT SORRY Haji Mohamed Dawjee Loot.co.za (R269) Pengiun Random House

THIS incisive collection of essays subtitled “Experiences of a brown woman in a white South Africa”,

is filled with fury at white behaviour experienced personally by the writer.

But the polemic is by no means a blunt instrument: the essays have a range and complexity which makes this an important book.

Dawjee, a thirty-something yearold journalist originally from Pretoria, studied at the universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch and now lives in Cape Town with her wife, Rebecca Davies.

There is a significant amount of autobiographical content in the book and some of it is courageously self-revealing, for instance where Dawjee writes about her experience of severe depression. For this she gets my sincerest respect.

But this book is at its most arresting where Dawjee inveighs against white South Africans for behaviour she finds objectionable.

Here is an example from the final essay: “I know for sure that it is both okay and useful for the woke white to struggle with their own conscience. To feel guilt, fear, doubt and self-castigation.”

The great value of Dawjee critique is that she gives specific examples of white behaviour that offends her. This book made me unhappy at all the pain described in it, but also happy that these things are being said out loud and in such precise grounded terms.

In our complicated society this is meaningful progress. Yes, this is an angry book, but I came away with the distinct feeling that Dawjee is not angry so much as – underneath all the rage – heartbroken.