Peace, Politics and Violence in the New South Africa (African Discourse Series) - Hardcover

In Peace, Politics and Violence in the New South Africa, a number of eminent political scientists, sociologists and historians examine the key issues surrounding the sudden collapse of apartheid in South Africa, and delineate the forces that have brought about change - can useful parallels be drawn between Gorbachev and De Klerk? To what extent do ethnic or 'tribal' rivalries threaten peace-making? Can the ANC win power without compromising the objectives of the Freedom Charter? Is Afrikaner nationalism a spent force? What lessons do independent Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana hold for the new South Africa? Can South Africa hope to build an integrated army and an impartial police force? Will it return to the Commonwealth? These are some of the questions confronted by the contributors, all seasoned observers from both inside and outside South Africa.
Particular attention is paid to the National Party and the African National Congress, who have dominated the scene since the Codesa talks about a new constitution began in November 1991. Other chapters examine the relative importance of external forces in driving the world's last constitutionally racist government into a corner from which no escape was possible; and, equally important, the internal movements of resistance, which, by making South Africa's vast townships ungovernable, made negotiations imperative if a unified state was to persist in the subcontinent. Whether South Africa, having avoided a long-anticipated violent revolution, can achieve stability and peace, is a question that concerns every contributor to this timely volume.