Seldom in living memory has the conflict between right and might been as clear as when South Africa remained subjugated to more than 300 years of de facto apartheid. When my 'rainbow family' visited Cape Town only ten weeks after Mandela became president, South Africans of every race and station wordlessly celebrated us--and themselves--in what I can only describe as post-orgasmic relief and disbelief.
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Thank you for this coverage. The choice of words in the article’s subtitle and at a later point seemed inconsistent with the history described. “Transformation... began when a white-minority regime realized its time was past”? It reminds me of how students in the US sometimes are taught that slavery in the US ended suddenly when beneficent white power-holders granted freedom, i.e., with Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. These types of narratives minimize the impact of the lengthy resistance mounted by Black people and allies, and the impact of social movements and political organizing. Much of the rest of the article describes the extent of this resistance in South Africa. Groups in power rarely cede it voluntarily. Please don’t lose that nuance by leading the article with a phrase that whitewashes the transformation of the South African government.
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