I recently dipped a toe outside my comfort zone when I picked up Jan Smuts – Unafraid of Greatness by Richard Steyn, sent to me by Jonathan Ball Publishers last month. Biographies aren’t really my thing, but I agreed to give this one a try. It’s a reprint of Steyn’s book which was first published by the same publishers in 2015 and which sold more than 20 000 copies. Despite my general reservations about biographies, I found myself immediately drawn in by Steyn’s writing and remained glued to the end.
Like most South Africans, I’m aware of Jan Smuts’s credentials as a soldier, statesman and intellectual, and his reputation as one of South Africa’s most accomplished leaders. But I also grew up in an Afrikaner circle, and most Afrikaners at the time had a litany of (typically misinformed) misgivings about Smuts, and often outright hostility towards him. Others totally ignored his stunning contributions to the country and world, which means my knowledge of the man had been decidedly limited.
Unafraid of Greatness is a brilliant examination of the life and thoughts of Smuts. Of course it offers great insight into his long career in public office and remarkable achievements as soldier-statesman, but where Steyn’s effort shines is in the second half of the book which he devotes to Smuts the man: who he was, what his passions and interests were, and what inspired his greatness.
In this easy-to-read, fast-flowing section, Steyn blends fact, anecdote and opinion to create an excellent and highly entertaining summation of a complex and brilliant character. It includes details of Smuts’s relationships with women, his spiritual and intellectual life, and the impactful role he played in advising world leaders, presidents and kings alike.
Although politics and international affairs lie at the heart of this book, it was eye-opening to learn more about the man’s astonishing intellect, his love for his country and his people, and his contributions in a variety of other fields, including botany, conservation and philosophy.
I particularly delighted in the chapter about Smuts the family man, which revealed more about his love for children, and his appreciation of, and enduring friendships with, strong and intellectual women. What further distinguished him from his peers was his spirituality and perennial quests for universal truths. In 1926, he wrote a philosophical book titled Holism and Evolution, whose premise centred around his avant-garde (certainly at the time) theory that ‘we live in a universe in which every living thing – atoms, cells, plants, animals and humans – form a whole. Each whole consists of more than its parts and combines with others to form an even greater whole. And that the progression of wholes, rising tier upon tier, makes up the structure of the universe.’
Having been spoon-fed, from a young age, the warped rhetoric that Smuts had somehow sold the Afrikaners out and was not to be trusted, I only much later came to appreciate his significant role in the creation of modern South Africa, a fact that Steyn so eloquently corroborates. He devoted his entire life to serving South Africa and Afrikaners, and his efforts certainly put the country on the proverbial map.
Steyn makes other intriguing observations, such as drawing parallels between Smuts and former president Thabo Mbeki, both of whom played fundamental roles in the history of South Africa, and who were both heralded abroad, but whose contributions and leadership were not recognised or appreciated by their own countrymen.
He also provides some understanding to a few contentious issues, such as why Smuts, one of the architects of the United Nations and a great proponent of human rights, could not see his way to including the African majority in the politics of his own country.
For a detailed and balanced look at one of South Africa’s most significant leaders, I highly recommend Unafraid of Greatness.
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