The Nagging Conscience of South Africa : Books: Nadine Gordimer, a relentless, outspoken critic of the white Establishment, crafts riveting tales of racial injustice in ‘My Son’s Story’ and other works.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. —  The changes in her country have been “tremendous,” and in some ways quite astonishing.

“I began to feel I would never live to see the African National Congress unbanned,” said Nadine Gordimer, the novelist who has been called the conscience of South Africa, on a recent visit here.

“I thought I would never live to see (Nelson) Mandela and the other leaders out of prison.”

Since adolescence Gordimer has been an outspoken foe of the white South African government and its systematic repression of blacks, by far the majority of its population. With an increasingly angry yet always eloquent voice, her seven collections of short stories and 10 novels have scrupulously documented the human side of her country’s racial injustice.

If fellow South African novelist Alan Paton’s works have given the world an almost progressive view of the country, Gordimer’s books have seethed rage. On the subject of racial separation, Gordimer has no use for gentleness. Her most recent novel, “My Son’s Story” (published this month by Farrar, Straus & Giroux), begins when the son of a “colored” activist discovers that his father is seeing a white woman.

Gordimer read a short story, “Home,” to an audience of Harvard University students on a recent visit here. When she finished reading, the audience sat, immobilized. Her tale of racial tension had captivated them to the point of silence. No one would speak.

“I guess there’s nothing else to say,” Michael Blumenthal, chairman of the school’s creative writing program, finally said.

One day later, Gordimer sat in the living room of her old friend Harry Levin, a retired professor of literature at Harvard. She is 66 years old, small and delicate, almost bird-like, with hair that is perfectly white.

Gordimer is gracious, but keeps a cool distance. The daughter of a Lithuanian immigrant watchmaker and his British wife, Gordimer exudes a sense of quiet impatience. She has little time--and less inclination--for small talk.

For her, the urgency of South Africa cannot be underestimated. To that end, she all but dismisses questions about literature and directs the discussion toward politics.

She would concede that, at least on the surface, South African president F. W. de Klerk has made strides toward racial justice.

“He has gone farther than anyone else,” Gordimer said. “But people have to understand that the basic underpinnings of apartheid are still there.”

As an example she cites the popular registration act, “which says what color you are when you are born marks you for life. It’s still there,” Gordimer said.

“The two acts that deprived blacks of their right to own land are still there,” she said. “Nominally, schools are supposed to be open to people of all colors--but this depends on the wishes of the majority of parents, so this is not really open education to all.”

While many people outside South Africa laud the developments there, many, many problems remain, she said. “De Klerk reassures everyone in this country by saying the end of apartheid is irreversible; it is here. But the ANC, people like Mandela and me, say it is not irreversible.

“It could be pegged at the level that it is now,” she said. “And that would not be the end of apartheid.”

Imprisoned for 27 years, liberation leader Nelson Mandela was De Klerk’s “trump card,” Gordimer said. Mandela’s release earlier this year was De Klerk’s most dramatic gesture toward black South Africa.

The event brought jubilation but also some concerns. With Mandela, Gordimer said, “of course there was always a question mark. After you have been in jail for over 27 years, and are over 70 years old, there was a question if he would be up to it all.”

As it happened, Mandela was up to it, “and more.” Gordimer offered a slight smile. “One begins to wish that some other politicians could go to prison for 27 years, if they could turn out like that.”

For Mandela “is not just intelligent and honest, he is--and one doesn’t use this word very often--he is a wise man,” Gordimer said.

Mandela became an instant symbol of change and hope for South Africa. On a visit to the United States in August, he was greeted with near-adulation.

But Gordimer cautioned that Mandela’s ecstatic reception here must be viewed with some cynicism.

“The ticker tape is not enough,” she said. “That gets swept away the next morning. The ANC needs strong financial support.”

Gordimer signed up as a member of Mandela’s party, the African National Congress, almost the moment that it was unbanned and recognized as an official political organization in South Africa. It was the first political party she had ever joined.

Gordimer gave another small smile. “I’m happy to be a card-carrying member of the ANC,” she said.

She warns that progress toward racial equality in South Africa is also threatened by right-wing opponents of the De Klerk government. “At a conservative estimate, 90% of the political base does not support De Klerk and does not support constitutional debate, but does support the right-wing breakaway party,” she said.

For a time, “it was easy to dismiss them as a bunch of cranks wanting to turn back the clock,” Gordimer said. “But now we have to accept that they are dangerous and have to be dealt with.”

The precariousness of the situation in South Africa is not widely understood outside that country, Gordimer said. “Somehow, the outside world expected that once Mandela was out of jail, everything would be all right,” she said.

“But what power has Mandela got?” Her voice rose in indignation. “He hasn’t even got a vote! He is a world statesman and he hasn’t got a vote. What an extraordinary position.”

Not long ago, Mandela called Gordimer to seek advice about publishing his autobiography. Their meeting spawned rumors that Gordimer would write it for him.

The rumors are nonsense, she said. Beyond briefing him on the workings of the publishing industry, she has no involvement in the writing of Mandela’s autobiography. “I told him, ‘you are a great statesman, but you don’t know anything about publishing.’

“What could happen to you as a writer?” she said she asked Mandela. “You could be banned, and I am three times banned. But no writer in South Africa was put in prison” for writing.

Three of Gordimer’s own books have been banned in South Africa for as long as 12 years. In 1979, her novel “Burger’s Daughter” was seized in South African bookstores and blasted by the government as “a full-scale attack against the Republic.”

But since Gordimer has seen many of her political friends imprisoned or exiled, the government’s actions against her seemed relatively minor.

She shrugs at the notion that writing books that offend the Establishment is in any way courageous. “If I have had any courage--and I am aware that it is never enough--it is for the way I have lived my life, and not for what I have written,” Gordimer said.

But her writing has served her in her political activism in South Africa. “As I became known through my writing, then I would always be asked political questions,” she said. “I really felt it was my opportunity” to speak out.

“So many people were banned,” Gordimer said. “Blacks had no opportunity to speak out. So I had a responsibility to speak out. I could not not have done it. I could not have had any self-respect as a white person living there.”

Gordimer has also put her principles into action as a founder of the Congress of South African Writers, which has about 5,000 members scattered around that country, she said. COSAW is closely allied with the ANC and most of its members are black.

“We have tremendous problems because so many people who want to write, they have the talent and the imagination, but are so poorly educated that they don’t have the words,” Gordimer said. COSAW brings “suitcase libraries” to aspiring black writers in the countryside. It offers encouragement and education, even providing typewriters--a luxury for many who would choose to write.

“There’s such a lot of talent among black writers in South Africa,” Gordimer said. “But it is so hard to get them published.”

If there is any praise to be given, Gordimer said she will accept some recognition for what she has done to help foster liberation in South Africa.

“But not as a writer,” she insisted. “As a writer, I’m just doing what I know how to do.”