Alan Paton is probably the best known South African in the world. His novel, "Cry the Beloved Country," is still the window through which most outsiders see South Africa. But here in his homeland, he has little influence and no power. "When you have no power," he says, "you learn to live without it." He is 64, a red-faced man with wisps of white hair and a high voice tinged with shyness. He lives alone here in the high greenness of the hills overlooking the seaport of Durban. He likes to show visitors the kloof from which the village takes its name. It is a great rift in the hills, cut apart by the ancient waters of a river. The sides of the drop are steep and stony like a fjord. "You have a similar word in America but seldom use it. Clove. It comes from the Dutch. Our word, of course, comes from the Dutch, too." He is president of the Liberal Party which believes in gradually granting all adults the right to vote regardless of race. This would mean black power in South Africa...

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