McKaiser on race, rape, sexuality

Grahamstonian, Oxford Scholar and social critic Eusebius McKaiser visited his home town last Friday to launch There’s a bantu in my bathroom, a personally revealing book that also contains some easy-to-understand philosophical debates.

First released last September, the book hit the national best-seller list in just 10 days and is now in its fourth print run.

Bantu is a collection of essays intermingled with stories, anecdotes and personal memoirs McKaiser uses to illustrate his arguments on race, identity, sexuality and other sticky topics.

Influenced by George Orwell and James Baldwin, McKaiser said he wanted to make philosophical arguments accessible to the nation.

“South Africans love stories and I used stories to tease out debates,” McKaiser told his audience at Friday’s launch.

Speaking frankly, an emotional McKaiser described the scene of him coming out to his father while still at Rhodes, his rape as a young boy and his first date with a black man (until then, he only dated white guys).

McKaiser admits that he put off coming home for a while as it’s an emotionally-charged space for him and a lot of the anecdotes he recounts are of growing up in the City of Saints.

McKaiser uses his stories to explore liberalism, authenticity and freedom, sparing no detail for the faint of heart.

But he isn’t sure if he’ll share as much of himself in a book again, he said.

“I wanted to try and get people who haven’t attended university to understand university ideas; to make academic debate connect with social life,” McKaiser explained.

Taking a no-holds-barred and fresh approach to affirmative action, the rainbow nation, polygamy and even South African comedians, this book is engaging, accessible and a tad cheeky.

Challenging readers’ world-views while guiding them; reading philosophy never made so much sense.

After being published in the New York Times, The Star and the Mail & Guardian, writing a book was just the next challenge for this World Masters Debate Champion and former Radio 702 talk show host.

After enjoying such incredible success, we eagerly await McKaiser’s second book tentatively titled, Why should I vote for the DA?, due for release later this year.