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A Model for Change in South Africa
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10994 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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Date : |
6 / 1986 |
1,909 Words |
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Norman Antokol Interviews Prof. Lawrence Schlemmer
Norman Antokol is a professor of history and political science
currently serving in the Foreign Service as a political
officer. His posts have included Venezuela, London, the
multinational peacekeeping force in the Sinai, and the Officer
for Combatting Terrorism. |
The Union of South Africa came into existence in 1910, with the amalgamation of the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, the British Cape Colony, and the Colony of Natal. This ended the struggle between Afrikaners and English-speaking South Africans, but also threw into stark relief the broader problem of relations between the black majority and the governing white minority. Whites comprise a little less than 20 percent of the population of South Africa, and their attempts to maintain their political power, while avoiding bloodshed, have raised a series of problems that have plagued the country--indeed the entire region--for virtually all of this century.
Blacks and whites in South Africa continue to live in the shadow of upheaval and racial violence. Lately, though, there have been some hopeful signs, not the least of which is the Indaba (Zulu for convention) that began in April in the province of Natal.
Natal is a racially heterogeneous territory with a population that is more than 50 percent black but contains sizable minorities of Asians, whites, and coloreds (these are the official racial designations used in South Africa). Natal is run by a white-controlled provincial government, but geographically includes KwaZulu, the largest and most important of all the black homelands. KwaZulu accounts for more than one-third of the province's land mass.
The leadership of Natal and that of KwaZulu parallel each other but have heretofore been kept strictly separate--one government for whites, another for blacks, even within the narrow geographical confines of the small province. Now both have sent representatives to the Indaba for the purpose
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