In The Name Of God: Defending Apartheid

***This book does not sanction Apartheid ― read it and see for yourself!***

A frank and outspoken coming-of-age memoir, In The Name Of God is the author's exploration of the role he played in defending Apartheid.

"It was the mid-80s and South Africa was burning. Township streets were violent with protest and a full-blown Cold War proxy war raged on the border. None of these issues occupied my mind at the time. I was too busy growing up."

The reluctant disciple of an unholy cause, Michael wrestles with life and love against the backdrop of a pivotal period in South Africa's dark history. Twenty-two years old and freshly-graduated from university, Michael is called up for compulsory national service with the South African Defence Force. He must leave the comforts of home and the arms of the love of his life, Kimberly, to undergo military training at Infantry School in Oudtshoorn. There he faces gruelling instruction at the hands of the Afrikaner ranks, who are none-too-accepting of the Engelsman (Englishman) who resists their autocratic ways. Michael misses Kimberly desperately, but finds comfort in the easy friendships he strikes up with fellow conscripts. Basics, Vasbyt, border duty and the demands of army life occupy Michael's days, while he fights to keep a hold on life outside the army and his relationship with Kimberly. His experience of being discriminated against as an English-speaking serviceman in a very-Afrikaans institution is turned on its head when he is posted as an officer to a black battalion near the Kruger National Park in his second year of national service.

In The Name Of God follows Michael as he negotiates his way through Infantry School and beyond, wrestling with life and love along the way. Against the backdrop of a pivotal time in South Africa's dark history, the book examines the role one man played in defending apartheid and describes his coming-of-age under extreme circumstances. Filled with action, friendship, love and humor, the book is also an earnest attempt on the part of Michael Warren to make sense of the South Africa of the past and the South Africa in which he finds himself in the present.