Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1994
Disciplines
African History | African Studies | Leadership Studies | Other Political Science | Personality and Social Contexts | Political Science | Psychology | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
Abstract
In this article I first offer a brief historical account of European white settlement, and ultimately political dominance, in southern Africa. Next, I outline how whites, and in particular Afrikaner-dominated National Party governments after 1948, achieved almost total subjugation of South Africa’s black majority through oppressive legislation and the calculated use of force. In that regard I enumerate some of the draconian laws enacted in the post-1948 apartheid state — laws that served as an impetus for black nationalism, anger, resistance, protest and, after 1960, armed struggle to achieve liberation from white oppression. Against this background, I examine salient factors accounting for South Africa’s relatively peaceful transition from apartheid state to nonracial democracy, focusing on situational variables as well as the personal characteristics of South African presidents P.W. Botha, F.W. de Klerk, and Nelson Mandela.
Recommended Citation
Immelman, A. (1994). South Africa's long march to freedom: A personal view. The Saint John's Symposium, 12, 1-20. Retrieved from Digital Commons website: http://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/23/
Included in
African History Commons, African Studies Commons, Leadership Studies Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons
Comments
Related publications and updates available at the website of the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics in the Foreign Studies section on the South Africa page.