Abstract:
In this article, Christi van der Westhuizen’s sociopolitical contribution in her publication,
Sitting Pretty: White Afrikaans Women in Postapartheid South Africa, is reviewed. In light of
the official end of apartheid in 1994, South Africans are attempting to define a new
identity. Van der Westhuizen’s publication focusses on how the identity of white Afrikaans
women, as both the oppressor and the oppressed, influences and contributes to the
endeavour of a search for new identity. In deconstructing and re-imagining new identity,
Van der Westhuizen deconstructs the ‘supporting scaffolding’ of Afrikaner identity and
examines the impact of white patriarchal hegemony that silences the voice of women,
sexual minorities and black consciousness. The review concludes with the emphasis on
the transformative role of shame, that is, the willingness to expose the false sense of
goodness that we had of ourselves, as pointed out by Van der Westhuizen. In this regard,
the recognition of the intersectionality of people’s experiences becomes a key aspect of
the endeavour of a search for new identity.
