Theologian Dr. Lucila Crena and photojournalist Eve Fairbanks discuss her debut book, an intimate portrait of South Africa's racial reckoning Soccer fans celebrate in Soweto during the World Cup, South Africa. Photo: Eve Fairbanks
Theologian Dr. Lucila Crena talks to photojournalist Eve Fairbanks, who has lived in Johannesburg, South Africa for thirteen years. Her debut book The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa's Racial Reckoning (Simon and Schuster, 2022) “weaves together the stories of three ordinary South Africans over five tumultuous decades in a sweeping and exquisite look at what really happens when a country resolves to end white supremacy.” As Fairbanks points out, there was a time when the Apartheid system of segregation in South Africa seemed like an "eternal Gordian Knot, like a hopeless bind." That is, "until 1994, when, suddenly, you had, in one day, [a] parliament change from being 100 percent white to being 80 percent people of color...literally overnight."
Photos by Eva Fairbanks—click to read captions. View fullsize
Nieu Bethesda Church View fullsize
Young Worshippers View fullsize
Summer Storms View fullsize
Black Homeland View fullsize
Storefront View fullsize
Makaraba View fullsize
Agriculture Building View fullsize
Fence Repairs View fullsize
Farmhouse
PURCHASE “A moving group portrait of disillusion and resilience.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
“Easily the most compelling new nonfiction book I’ve read in years. The Inheritors is not just a spellbinding, beautifully written story about apartheid South Africa, but also an augury for America today.”
—Suketu Mehta,
Author, Maximum City, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize