After apartheid

by Sebastian Mallaby

The era of white minority rule in South Africa is all but over. Nearly every day, the front pages of newspapers around the world chronicle the amazing transformation of the country and the dismantling of apartheid. These dramatic changes have occurred with bewildering speed; not even the most optimistic observer of South African politics could have predicted that within eighteen months we would see the unbanning of the African National Congress, the release of Nelson Mandela, the repeal of the racial classification laws, and the end of U.S. sanctions. The collapse of apartheid, like the collapse of communism, marks a revolutionary and exhilarating triumph of human rights over oppression. Sebastian Mallaby, the Africa correspondent for The Economist, poses the tough questions that confront South Africa as it leaves apartheid behind.^ Will the country manage to avoid the instability that followed the collapse of white rule elsewhere in Africa? Can rival black liberation movements be reco