Decolonization and White Africans examines how African decolonization affected white Africans in eight countries - Algeria, Kenya, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Angola, Mozambique, South West Africa (Namibia), and South Africa - and discusses their varied responses to decolonization, including resistance, acquiescence, negotiations, and migration. It also examines the range of mechanisms used by the global community to compel white Africans into submitting to decolonization through such means as official pressure, diplomatic negotiations, global activism, sanctions, and warfare. Until now, books about African decolonization usually approached the topic either from the perspective of the colonial powers or from an anti-colonial black African perspective. As a result, white African perspectives have been marginalized, downplayed, or presented reductively. Decolonization and White Africans adds white African perspectives to the story, thereby broadening our understanding of the decolonization phenomenon.

In this accessible narrative, Louw effectively tells the story of 20th-century South Africa by examining three political periods: British Hegemony (1900-1948), the Afrikaner Nationalist Period (1948-1993), and the post-1994 Black Nationalist Period. He argues that apartheid was premised upon the notion of "political partition" and not "white supremacy." Apartheid was a political strategy, constructed by the ethnic minority in order to prevent them from becoming politically powerless. Unfortunately the partition plan failed, causing an era of pain for South Africa. With apartheid now formally over, Louw presents a comprehensive overview of this important 20th-century phenomenon. Topics covered include: The roots and causes of apartheid. What was apartheid? The struggle against apartheid Why did Afrikaner Nationalists negotiate their own demise in the 1990s? The impact of apartheid in contemporary South Africa.