A Journey of Choice

‘My father had one career his entire life; I have a wonderful life divided over a variety of interesting careers. Life, I would argue, is indeed a journey of choice.’ The author of A Journey of Choice, Hein Scheffer, was born in South Africa in the 1960s and lived there for over forty years before emigrating to the UK with his wife. The story of his personal life is intermingled with depictions of the memorable events from that period, as well as a wide-ranging and well-researched description of his native country’s tortuous, 350-plus-year history. Hein was witness to many seismic changes to South Africa, including the perpetuation of an Apartheid regime in the face of sustained international condemnation and the rise of anti-Apartheid resistance movements, some of which pursued violent methods. Perhaps most significant has been the country’s emergence as ‘the rainbow nation’, which arguably began in 1990 with the release of Nelson Mandela from his long imprisonment on Robben Island. There have been many books written about South Africa’s recent history. What you get in A Journey of Choice is the unusual perspective of a middle-class Afrikaner born into a well-respected, God-fearing and conservative family, whose personal relationships gradually led him to question the foundations on which the entire life and culture of his family were based. Hein Scheffer shows us how he grew to understand that the only way South Africa could achieve its full potential would be for all South Africans, irrespective of the colour of their skin, to be treated equally before the law, with mutual respect, dignity and opportunity for all in even measure. Candid and self-reflective, A Journey of Choice depicts the struggles and successes of an ordinary man in extraordinary times.