THE IMPACT OF THE APARTHEID PAST ON INTERRACIAL UNIONS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PERIOD, A STUDY OF NADINE GORDIMER’S NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT

Abstract

The ending of the apartheid government in South Africa saw many discriminatory laws that the apartheid system had robustly championed during its prime being abolished. Prior to 1994, the indomitable system of apartheid passed equitability and prejudiced laws that included The Immorality Act, 1927 (Act No. 5 of 1927) and The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (Act No. 55 of 1949). These acts forbade sexual relations between white and non-white South Africans and prohibited marriages between white and non-white South Africans respectively. These acts, like other apartheid laws, were obliterated when democratic forces took governance. As a result, the country saw the rise of interracial relationships and marriages in the democratic arena as mirrored in Gordimer’s No Time Like the Present, which serves as a reflection of South Africa in the post-apartheid era specifically inspecting the state interracial marriages. This qualitative paper has used the Gordimer’s aforementioned novel to explore the issues that come to grips with miscegenation in the democratic space. It has found that despite apartheid being dethroned, it still influences the perception of interracial unions in the apartheid era. The interracial couples in Gordimer’s novel are still stigmatised and often tabooed, and this is due to the segregation that the apartheid government aimed to eternise in the country.