Coming of age in the late Sixties, Gini Holland majored in English at the University of Wisconsin, reveled in creative writing courses, transferred to the University of Cape Town for her junior year, and joined the anti-apartheid student movement, which certainly gave her something to write about. When she returned to the States, she continued her University of Wisconsin studies at the height of the anti-war movement. The peace movement and the emergence of counter-culture values challenged her white middle-class upbringing and now inspire many of her characters' ideals and struggles.
Holland's first novel, Rites of Resistance, explores the difficult choices forced on all who lived in South Africa's police state. The maids in this story, based on true events, must navigate strict racial segregation while serving a white upper middle-class family that covertly supports Nelson Mandela's underground African National Congress. Despite their liberal views, the white family must enforce apartheid laws on their maids to prevent South African police raids that would expose their underground activities. Go to https://uctalumniconnect.com for her essay, "Spirit of '68 Memories,"
and many photos documenting South Africa's first white student protest against apartheid.
At the base of these brick stairs below Muizenberg Mountain, a white gate stands between the Jewish family that harbors apartheid fugitives and the secret police who watch their every move. The gate also stands guard between the family maids' safe but servile domain and the segregated country beyond, where, as nonwhites, they have no right to travel without a signed pass and no right to vote, own property, or shop in white-only stores. They may serve and live behind the white gate, but they may not keep their children or husbands with them. Their alternative is to live in black township huts (see above) or in "Bantustans," with limited prospects of employment.