Power Lines : Two Years in South Africa's Borders [Hardcover]

Jason Carter (Author), Jimmy Carter (Author)

Book Description

Series: Adventure Press | Publication Date: June 1, 2002

Jason Carter, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, writes of a South Africa few people ever see. During his two years as a Peace Corps volunteer, Carter stayed with a rural family in Swaziland, a former black homeland near the Mozambique border. South Africa is a country still racked by deep racial divides. The whites live much as other Westerners, with nice houses and nice cars. The blacks, Carter found, live in a world of grinding poverty and unemployment, where school children do not dare to hope, and where casual crime is accepted as a way to get back at whites. Even after Nelson Mandelais regime-shattering election as president, whites and blacks literally cannot communicate with each other. During his training Carter learned Zulu and Siswati, two of the many black languages, and with these tools he began breaking down racial barriers. Everywhere blacks befriended him, delighted to find a white person who spoke in their tongue. Carter was invited to engagement parties and funerals. He rode all over the country in overcrowded black taxis and hitchhiked in cars driven by both blacks and whites. In the process he found many people on both sides that want to reach out to each other. And that is Carters message. Even in a society as divided as South Africa, peoples desire to come together will triumph over all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this illuminating and textured, if pedestrian account of life in the Peace Corps, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter (who has written the introduction) shows that he, too, might be headed for high places. After graduating from college, Carter spent two years in the late 1990s volunteering in a former black homeland, as South Africa tried to build itself anew in the aftermath of apartheid. Assigned to the tiny, and poor, community of Lochiel, Carter takes the political and turns it into the personal as he writes candidly of his attempts to help create a new curriculum; he reflects on his efforts to raise teachers' self-esteem without trampling on their turf. Carter depicts life with humor and honesty and considers the limits of his stint, the way Western culture has become part of South Africans' lives and his guilt at enjoying its trappings as he travels around the country. Now a law student at the University of Georgia, Carter provides a lens on contemporary South African life that demonstrates his optimism for the future, tempered by his acknowledgment of continuing racial tension. The result will make readers sympathize with the author and empathize with the situations he describes without being maudlin. 16 pages of color photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Carter, the grandson of former president Jimmy Carter, spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer training teachers and living with a family in an impoverished village in South Africa. He also visited Nelson Mandela, but the heart of this lively, highly readable story is the white American student's daily life with ordinary South Africans. That he spoke Zulu and Siswati gained him immediate acceptance. Sharing computer skills, books, and music, he made close friends and experienced personally the strong enduring community. There is a refreshing absence of romanticism in Carter's account, not only about village life without running water and electricity but also about any good that he can do. And yet, there's no weary sophistication, either: his commitment is passionate, and so is his anger at the continuing apartheid residue of poverty, violence, and racism. He has fun as a tourist, too, but he can't get over the shock of his village being just a few miles from the most luxurious Western lifestyle. A great read for those who want more than vanishing-tribes exotica. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792280121
• ISBN-13: 978-0792280125
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,613,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #79 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( C ) > Carter, Jimmy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Earnest and moving, August 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Power Lines : Two Years in South Africa's Borders (Hardcover)

The reviewer who said the writing was a little pedestrian was correct; but that's not entirely a fault. Jason Carter has written an earnest, sincere, compassionate, and complimentary account of his years in the Peace Corps in South Africa, a country experiencing a somewhat painful democratic transition. His experience of residual racism in South Africa speaks volumes to the situation of race relations in America; and his unique perspective as one close to fame and fortune in America makes this a particularly gripping "fish out of water" story. He certainly seems to be on track for the kind of greatness his grandfather achieved and for which he expresses admiration in the book: unwavering dedication to ideals and principles and a sincere desire to serve. Though he could take some writing notes from Fr. James Martin, S.J. (his "This Our Exile" is a brilliant picture of the situation of African refugees), he's well on his way. An outstanding effort.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wena Wekunene Jason (You're Great Jason), December 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Power Lines : Two Years in South Africa's Borders (Hardcover)

A great book that gives rare insight into Swazi culture and life in rural South Africa. Having lived in the area as a school teacher and a researcher, I enjoyed the innocence with which Jason re-created and shared his impressions and experiences.

Jason's immersion in the language and culture of poor rural South Africans is admirable. He clearly "goes native:" identifying with "the Blacks" and uncomfortably, judgmentally, dealing with Westerners and South African Whites. The brilliant twist in the story comes when Jason struggles to come to terms with South Africa's Black elite. He's the rugged, White bushboy reaching out to victims of apartheid who are now more like American yuppies than real "Africans."

I also appreciated his attempts to reveal the differences in experiences that Black (like me) and White Americans often have in South Africa. Interestingly, Jason's feelings about race in America affected how he perceived South Africa, and his South African experienced revised his sense of US race relations.

Definitely worth reading, along with James Hall's Sangoma!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jason Carter's way of being touches the core of my soul, September 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Power Lines : Two Years in South Africa's Borders (Hardcover)

This book was a sit down and finish in two days sort of book. Nonjudgemental, intriguing, humanitarian. Summed up in Jason's own words "Africa is not only a story of war and famine and disease. It is also a story of triumph and self-respect in the face of those hardships." Those of you sitting around feeling sorry for yourself could benefit on the inside by peeking into the lives of these beautiful South African people.