This arrogance has led Waldorf to believe that there is little hope for South Africa. He says that he found little incentive for the Afrikaaners to abandon their policy of apartheid.

"The great lesson was how incredibly successfulapartheid has been," Waldorf says. "It hasinsulated the whites, who are oblivious to Blacksuffering. And it has divided the Blacks."

Waldorf cites the explosion of Crossroads as anexample of this division, adding that Crossroadswas not an isolated incident, and that right nowvigilantes are doing the same thing in a legaltownship near Brits.

The success of apartheid has steeled whiteSouth Africans against international criticism,Waldorf says. He says he has trouble endorsing anyof the policies now discussed in the UnitedStates.

"I don't want to support sitting on the fence,which is essentially what constructive engagementcomes down to. But I also don't want to support aviolent revolution," Waldorf says. "I don't knowthat there's anything in between, but neitherseems very moral to me."

From War to Torts

Waldorf's students say they have noticed thisconfusion. They say that Waldorf seems to haveconsidered the issues a great deal, but does notreally fit into a specific political category.

"I think he was a lot more conservative beforehe went to South Africa. It toned him down a lot,"says one of his students, Sean McKenna '88. "Heseems to have thought things out a lot more than alot of people around here. But he's hard toplace."

Another problem Waldorf has encountered sincehis return is his guilt at not remaining to helpthe volunteers. "It's difficult to adjust to goingsuddenly from being the midst of a civil war tostudying torts."

Waldorf has tried to stay in touch with SouthAfrica by continuing research on various topics,some for the nationalism tutorial. He has alsowritten three articles for the NewRepublic, two of which have already beenpublished and one of which should appear in thenext week or so.

Though he would like to return to South Africa,Waldorf says that he doubts the government willgive him a visa, both because he worked in thetownships and because he has written aboutapartheid.

Yet the feeling of frustration remains. "Irecognize that my own contribution in thetownships was a short-term alleviation of theproblem. But at least I had the sense that I wasactively doing something," Waldorf says.

"It's hard to see the universities buildingshanties when I just got back from seeing thoseshanties being torn down," he says