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advocate Motsamai. He has no compunction in being presumptuous. Such conventions of his life—what do they matter.
    Of course the man knows, everyone knows, the story has been a gift to the Sunday papers. But what is he thinking as he listens to the reiteration of facts, my son is accused of murder, there’s been a decision to place the case in the hands of Senior Counsel Hamilton Motsamai. My wife and I do not know this person, we have no personal feelings for or against him, we are concerned only with whether he is the best possible professional to act for our son.
    Is he interpreting, beneath one of the familiar silences of lawyers,
translating the private language of what is not being said: this Senior Counsel is black. Is that it?
    But for the moment the question should not be addressed between them; first, to protect the speaker from remarks inimical to the ethics of the profession, there must come a disclaimer: —There would be a number of ‘best possible’ defence counsel. You understand. I would not place one above the other. But Motsamai is known as eminently capable. And experienced. In his four years back in the country he’s appeared successfully in a number of challenging cases. Political, yes—but also of other natures. He has the kind of aggressive spirit—controlled, mind you, by strong intelligence—that puts him on a high level of competence in cross examination. Very clever—some would say exceptional.—
    Harald does not need a general opinion, which may be given in the caution of all fairness; he must know what this man himself really thinks. There is no time, no space between cell walls for the dangerous reservations of ‘all fairness’.—And you? What would you say?—
    It must be impossible to be confronted by Harald Lindgard at this time and not to be shocked—and shock is always within a breath’s distance of fear—by what it is that could happen to a man like him; like oneself. The last time they met they were standing around drinks in hand discussing with the Deputy Minister of Finance the pros and cons of lifting foreign exchange controls! Although the man did not know Lindgard more intimately than this, he had to put aside professionalism as if he doffed the black robe he wore in court.—Look, I don’t sprinkle exaggerated epithets around, but I can tell you the fellow’s remarkable. You don’t know anything about his background? I can’t remember exactly what part of the country he grew up in, usual thing, a poor lad from uneducated parents, and he managed to get into Fort Hare for his law degree in the late Sixties. Then he was involved in Youth Group political activity, detained. When he was released he fled to England and somehow—scholarships—continued law studies there. Before he came back in’90, he’d been accepted at Gray’s Inn and
appeared for the defence at the Old Bailey. So there could hardly be any difficulties raised against his getting admitted to the Bar, here. Frankly—you can well imagine, after years when blacks were discounted as brains in the legal profession, now there’s considerable eagerness to show credit given where credit is due—in fact, Motsamai is providential … a star was needed and he appeared in our constellation … He’s what the popular press would term much sought-after. Fortunately this isn’t just an affirmative action display. No no.—
    That may be the concluding statement to be carried away; but Harald senses a weight that keeps him from making to leave.
    â€”You’ve had doubts about your son’s defence being conducted by a black man.—
    There it is. Laid out before them, Harald and his distinguished mentor. But it is presented as what might be expected, a simple regression, belched up from the shared dinners of the past.
    â€”We don’t have to attribute that doubt to racial prejudice, because