White gangster’s memoir looks at racial injustice

Karen Watkins|Published 4 months ago

Kalk Bay author Andries Du Toit with Kopano Ratele from Pinelands.

Kalk Bay researcher, teacher and writer, Andries Du Toit launched his book A Blow to the Head at the Book Lounge in Roeland Street on Wednesday October 30.

The story revolves around an encounter with a white man — who turns out to be a gangster — who is being rude to a black waitress in the cafeteria at an Atlantic seaboard health club.

A month later he finds himself roughed up in a carpark and the target of payback.

In conversation with decolonial psychologist and masculinities studies at Stellenbosch University, Kopano Ratele, Du Toit said the book is a memoir through a lens that brought him to that fateful confrontation.

It’s a journey of discovery with themes of justice, race and inequality where he confronts himself, the country and the world we live in.

Enjoying wine sponsored by Spier are Kristi Maciejewski, left, with Scott Drimie, both from Hout Bay.

Craig Carter from Claremont with Michael Heuerman of Kalk Bay and Heidi Carter from Claremont.

Zaynab Hendricks and Sumayyah Hendricks, both from Walmer Estate, with Sydney Mayer from Observatory.

Delaney Schiefen, left, and Mia Winslow, both from Rondebosch.