South Africa never leaves one indifferent. Its history, its population, its landscapes and cultures: all speak to the visitor, to the student, to the friend of Africa. A rich mix of memories, uncertain political horizons and its own particular destiny make the country a symbol and a source of hope shadowed by lurking doubt.
The system of apartheid institutionalized in 1948—but which represented the transformation into legal terms of much older discriminatory practices—was a source of shame for the contemporary human conscience. It regulated and codified the differences between the “races,” colors and human status. All the while, the so-called democratic countries and the world’s multinational corporations and banks had few qualms about supporting and trading with such a regime. Shame became the legal norm. In our hundreds of thousands we cried out for action, and abroad supported the legitimate struggle of the ANC against the racist government up to the ning of negotiations and the liberation of Nelson Mandela in 1990. Mandela became president in 1994, and one after another, the apartheid laws began to tumble. At last, South Africa was free. That was eighteen years ago, and everything has changed. But today, in 2012, can the South Africa of so many powerful symbols claim to be truly liberated?
Many lessons, at many levels, can be learned the country’s recent history. Much has yet to be done in the fight against discrimination. Apartheid may be dead, but racism is alive and well. As an activist living not far Soweto told me, “the struggle of the Blacks—and the poor—is far over.” Urban planning and housing policy, the labor market, and the school system (on the verge of collapse) confirm and reinforce social injustice. South Africa is laboring to find its revolutionary path; the colors of the Rainbow Nation have difficulty blending together; the wealthy elites (white, black or Indian) profit de facto segregation. The rich stick together; the poor and the marginalized are thrown together.
The country where a diversity of forces united against the apartheid regime is today witnessing the rise of increasingly pronounced religious, cultural and social segregation. It can hardly be an encouraging sign that with the disappearance of physical ghettos, new intellectual and psychological ghettos are emerging. The same trend cuts across all sections of the population. It is both strange and sad to see South Africa’s Muslims, some of who played a leading role in the liberation struggle (but not all, for some Muslim leaders unfortunately supported the apartheid regime), wondering aloud about their identity as South Africans. For many years they saw themselves as a part of the nation, and of its shared destiny in the fight against injustice and repression. Today, in a time of relative social peace and democratization, they isolate themselves, turning inward and even developing an attitude of victimization associated with an increasingly literalist view of Islam.
Political freedom has fuelled fears and shaken people’s confidence in themselves, their values and their sense of belonging. Even more troubling, and revealing: South Africa, in all its cultural and religious components, is going through an acute identity crisis. Under repression, everyone knew “against who” to define him or herself; with freedom, it has become difficult to determine “for ourselves” what defines us and what unites us. This crisis of identity is the sickness of the century in today’s modern, pluralist societies.
Then comes corruption, which we must not avert our eyes. From the summit of the state to the man on the street, South Africa is blighted with corruption, the absence of transparency and underhanded practices. The state of political life, trade and commerce, is worse than disturbing. What set apart the presidency of Nelson Mandela, his personal, historical and symbolic prestige, appears to have deserted the corridors of political and financial power. Some contrive to profit their reputation of resistance fighters to get rich; others justify their exploitation and mistreatment of others by nobly claiming that they were exploited and mistreated in the past; still others would be at a total loss to define ethics. Yesterday’s victims, who have become today’s power holders, hardly inspire confidence.
History teaches that it takes time to liberate a nation, to carry out a political, intellectual and psychological revolution. South Africa stands as an extraordinary example on the continent, and on the international scene. Its potential is immense; the South Africans themselves are not always fully aware of the exceptional quality of their destiny, and of their country’s formidable symbolic presence. They stood as a reminder to the oppressed everywhere never to give up, that liberty can overcome all odds and bring low the high and mighty. It was a message that the Palestinians, who are living under an even crueler and more devious form of apartheid, have heard with strength and determination, knowing that one day they too will overcome their oppressors.
South African women are everywhere present, exhibiting the kind of dynamism the country needs today, and will need even more tomorrow. They are a hope-filled reminder that South Africa will be reconciled with its ideals of freedom, justice and equality. In the schools (right up to university level), social structures and the media—and increasingly on the labor market—they can no longer be taken for granted, and have become front-line participants in the painstaking reconstruction of South Africa. Theirs is a lesson to be taken to heart in all the countries of the Middle East, where the masses came out into the streets in the name of dignity, liberty and justice.
South Africa is a rich land, full of promise and economic potential. Internationally, it holds a key political and geostrategic position. The government’s determination to keep its distance the diktats of the North, and to become one of the driving forces of the Global South must be hailed. New, emerging South-South relations, and the shift of the world economy’s center of gravity toward China and India—not forgetting Brazil, Venezuela, Indonesia or Malaysia—give South Africa a leading role in the new, multi-polar world. The road will be long; the challenges, many. Such is the price of transition. Soon the iconic figure of Mandela will be gone; South Africa will remain, far the symbols, to face its own realities. The struggle for freedom and justice is not over. Though all remains possible, it is impossible to say just how much has been achieved.
