Not Merely White: South African Poems

This long-awaited book of South African political, love and landscape poems, written in 1986-88, is for the first time published, on the thirtieth anniversary of South Africa achieving democracy in 1994. Many of these poems were originally published individually in apartheid South Africa at the time, and in Britain their quality prompted the International Who's Who in Poetry and Poets' Encyclopaedia (Cambridge) to list Brandon Broll's biography in 1994.

During apartheid in South Africa, few outside observers could imagine the country beyond its racist policies as a land of diverse culture and origin filled with people trying to live and express their common humanity. As well as it being a place of immense natural beauty. The extraordinary variety of these poems reveal South Africa at the time: at protest and war, in life and love, and in landscape, providing a unique political realm as well as a rich palette of experiences for the working poet.

"Excellent contributions to Staffrider." Andries Oliphant (editor)
"A cycle of poems reinforcing each other." Michael King (Contrast)
"The splendid Brandon Broll." Josephine Austin (Hastings Poetry Festival, 1991)