Zeit der Wahrheit

Renate Ahrens:
Zeit der Wahrheit
München: Kabel Verlag, 2003
285 S.
ISBN 3-492-24333-9
Paperback edition: Piper, 2005

Journalist Pia Lessing who works for a daily newspaper in Hamburg is called to her father's deathbed. With his last breath he utters the name Zoë – the name of Pia's former South African nanny. Shortly afterwards, in 1996, Pia travels for her newspaper to a politically highly charged South Africa. There she has to report on the proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that have just commenced in Cape Town and Durban.

Pia, who was born to German parents, left Cape Town as a four year old when her family returned to Hamburg. Within the context of the first hearings which Pia follows as a German journalist, she starts questioning her family history and her own past in South Africa.

She meets South African press photographer Jonathan in Bellville, a suburb of Cape Town. A tender love story develops against the backdrop of political upheaval. The "time of truth" starts in Pia's own life as well. Together with Jonathan she searches for her nanny Zoë and thereby gains insights into South African history. Pia hears of forced removals in townships, of racial hatred and oppression of the black and coloured population. During her search in the townships she experiences both gestures of help and friendship as well as those of rejection and contempt and doubts whether she will ever learn the truth about the apartheid system and her own history. Despite encountering some obstacles she eventually succeeds in a journey of discovery to her own roots and family secrets.

The novel shows much sensitivity for people who had to bear terrible suffering under the apartheid system. This becomes poignantly obvious in the description of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The actual story, however, the search for truth in her own family and the love story with South African press photographer Jonathan initially recede into the background in favour of the descriptions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The telling of the hearings at the University of the Western Cape under the leadership of archbishop Desmond Tutu gains weight through the sensitive portrayal of the cruel experiences of the victims. That is achieved by bringing close to the reader the events by way of implicit and indirect representation of the unspeakable. In this manner the reader is urged to acknowledge the courage people displayed in their disclosures and even more so to respect the victims of the apartheid system. Because of this focus, the actual story line looses some of its impact, since the authenticity which would have been ideally suited to allow the reader some glimpses into the difficult time of political change is lost. One has the impression that the author cannot decide whether she wants to write a challenging and critical novel or simply wants to narrate a love story, for which the difficult task of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission purely serves as a backdrop.

Even though the contrasts to which the journalist Pia is exposed in her experiences of Africa could not be greater, Ahrens nevertheless manages to convey to the reader an idea of two entirely different views of the world. It is surely not a coincidence that Pia is housed by her newspaper in the Vineyard hotel in Newlands, a well-off suburb at the foot of Table Mountain. The descriptions of these exotic experiences show the preciseness and thoroughness with which Ahrens observes the perceived contrasts during her stay in South Africa. Every visitor to the hotel will surely recognise the minutely recorded details, may they be the freely roaming guinea fowls in the hotel garden, the lemon trees, the flowering of the red hibiscus or the gurgling of the water fountain.

It is problematic however, that the protagonist prefers this artificially maintained harmony for herself during her stay in South Africa since she experiences contact with townships only through the perspective of the wealthy European, who always maintains her distance to the poverty and need of the people only to return to her safe haven of luxury in the evenings. Although Pia expresses a certain degree of disdain for German tourists and talks about their bad manners, she ultimately remains true to her European life style. There is no real engagement with the difficulties people experienced during the years of transition. Although the beginning of the novel tells an impressive story of the hearings, the difficult results and the attempts by society to come to terms with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are falling by the wayside as the story in the novel unfolds and reaches its conclusion. The eventual happy end has ultimately little to do either with the perceived contrasts or with the conflict situations during political turmoil which in the final analysis only serve as a necessary story frame.

Ahrens writes an appealing human interest story, well worth reading despite some problematic passages. Although the novel does not offer a critical assessment of South Africa's problems during times of political change, it nevertheless provides the reader with glimpses of the peaceful transition period in South Africa.