The Inheritors

More about the book

Listening length: 12 hours and 4 minutes. A dozen years in the making, this work weaves together the stories of three ordinary South Africans over five tumultuous decades, offering a sweeping look at the end of white supremacy. Dipuo grew up near a mine dump that separated Johannesburg’s black townships from the white-only city. In the 1980s, even as an anti-apartheid activist, the divide seemed eternal. However, in 1994, the last explicit racial segregationist regime collapsed, ushering in an unprecedented era. With penetrating psychological insight and intimate reporting, the narrative explores a country undergoing a profound reckoning. Through the lives of Dipuo, her daughter Malaika, and Christo—one of the last white South Africans drafted to fight for apartheid—award-winning journalist Eve Fairbanks examines the shifting power dynamics. The work delves into subtle truths about race and power that resonate beyond national borders, addressing pressing questions: How can individuals and nations let go of their pasts? How should historical debts be settled? And how can one live honorably in a society that feels unrecognizable?