A black South African friend of mine was driving near Pretoria when his car broke down. He got out and began waving at passing cars, asking for help. A bearded white man drove up in a pickup truck – in my friend’s eyes, the archetypal Afrikaner, or “Boer”. The man glanced at my friend, and drove on. “Oh, no,” my friend thought. “I’m in Boer territory. Nobody’s going to dare give a black man a lift.” He stood there cursing his fate – when suddenly the Afrikaner in the truck appeared again and beckoned him to jump in. As they drove off, the Afrikaner said: “I was raised with some bad ideas. Now I’m trying to change myself.” They stayed in touch afterwards.
我的一位南非黑人朋友驅車在比勒陀利亞附近行駛時，他的車出了故障。他下車向過往車輛招手求救。一位蓄了胡子的白人駕駛著一輛皮卡開了過來，在我的朋友眼里，他是典型的南非白人，即“布爾人”(Boer)。那人瞥了我的朋友一眼，沒有停車。我的朋友想道：“哎，糟了。我在布爾人的領地。沒人敢讓黑人搭便車。”他站在那里抱怨自己的霉運，但那位白人突然駕著卡車再次出現，示意他上車。開車后，白人說道：“我小時候被灌輸了一些不好的想法。現在我試圖改變自己。”兩人后來一直保持著聯系。