The New South Africa

I’ve come across an incredibly witty and insightful book commenting on life in ‘the new South Africa.’ The book was actually published in 1991, so its interesting to note how many of the author’s critical observations either remain relevant 16 years later or forebode times to come. The following is an excerpt:

“As the ripples of F W de Klerk’s historic speech spread to every corner of the land, one phrase rose like a ripple rising to the surface. It was a simple phrase that seemed to capture and define the spirit of the new South Africa and soon, almost before you could say ‘New South Africa’ the phrase was being heard on everybody’s lips. New South Africa. It was a phrase that had not been heard in this troubled land since 1984, when the Westminster Constitutional system had been abolished …. Before that the phrase had not been heard since 1961, when the Union of South Africa had withdrawn from the Commonwealth … Before that the phrase had not been heard since 1948 when the National Party rose to power and began building a New South Africa based on a foundation of democracy, prosperity, justice, and equality for all whites.”
It Take Two to Toyi-Toyi: A Survival Guide to the New South Africa, Gus Silber

It was this tongue in cheek excerpt which helped me realize that although people herald 1994 as THE critically defining moment in all of South African history, maybe Mandela’s election was not so much the event that changed everything, as simply one moment in time. I mean this: I think I previously assumed that the moment Nelson Mandela was elected signaled a permanent commitment to democracy from thence forth, changing everything. But history often mocks such assumptions as the pendulum swings in the opposite direction. Things simply aren’t as inevitable or fixed or permanently better. One New South Africa follows another. I hope this doesn’t come off as me wishing gloom and doom on the new South Africa. No, I’m just saying that South African has been through several periods of transition and where I previously assumed that this most recent was a pivotal climax, a final achievement, I’m coming to see that things aren’t so stable or secure. I’ve rambled and don’t feel that I’ve adequately conveyed my point, but I don’t know how better to phrase it. Basically, I'm saying that perhaps another New South Africa will follows this experiment, and I wonder what it will look like, and how committed it will be to the principles that this current government has advocated.