MORNING in South Africa, the new book by
John Campbell, director of the Africa programme at the influential
Council on Foreign Relations in New York, extols the virtues and
resilience of SA’s Constitution and its institutions and calls for
improved US-SA relations. Campbell told me he wrote the book to
reintroduce Americans to SA, as it is still its best prospect for a
strategic partner in Africa.
Whether the US goes along with Campbell will depend in part on who wins the November presidential election.
The book was released the same week demagogue Donald Trump won enough pledged delegates to secure the Republican presidential nomination, and if elected, he promises to alter US foreign relations radically. Another uncertainty, of course, is who decides what is in SA’s best interests.
Campbell summarises well the frictions and suspicions that have arisen between SA and the US since the Clinton administration post-1994 co-operation, exemplified by the Mbeki-Gore binational commission, and puts them in the wider context of both countries’ policies towards the rest of Africa and globally.
Readers interested in understanding the differences and similarities between the democratic cultures of SA and the US, the basis for building and sustaining any strategic partnership — variables such as size, location, economic development, racial composition and the number and nature of domestic and international conflicts — will find Campbell’s chapter "The historical trajectory" especially helpful.
Both the US and SA were founded on — and until recently dominated by — white racist male elites. However unjust these regimes were to non-whites and women, the limited democracy did provide for enough due process and rule of law to allow space for argumentation among ruling elites to prevent absolute authoritarianism or complete chaos. Terrible conflicts did arise, over slavery in the US and the relative power of English and Dutch colonials in SA.
Once resolved, new bargains brought peace, but with little justice, as white terrorism enforced post-slavery racial segregation in the US and apartheid rule in SA. Inclusive democracy, albeit still flawed, finally emerged in both countries, prompting the late Kenyan political scientist Ali Mazrui to declare SA and the US to have become in the 21st century the world’s first "global nations".
At the heart of Mazrui’s insight and Campbell’s plea for a revitalised US-SA partnership is allegiance to the concept of civic nationalism, not identities rooted in ethnic, racial or religious differences. In the US, Trump’s appeal to white males, fearful of losing what remains of their historic prerogatives, seems destined to succumb to the newly emerging non-white political majority, abetted by youth, women and the highly educated, who elected and re-elected Barack Obama.
Finding politically acceptable accommodation with Trump’s angry and alienated, but substantial white male constituency, and eliminating racism at all levels of the political system, remain that country’s toughest political challenges. Its economy is sufficiently large and innovative to manage such a transition, but partisan paralysis and popular disgust with the failures of central government make the 2016 election the most important in generations.
In SA, Campbell warns of the danger of rising ethnic nationalism within the ANC, which could fracture the black majority in ways that would make dealing with the long-term structural economic and social problems that are the legacy of apartheid more difficult, if not impossible.
It will also undermine a reassertion of SA’s regional and global leadership, which has been seriously eclipsed since the Mandela and Mbeki administrations.
Campbell believes SA’s institutions are still strong enough to sustain civic nationalism, but new leadership is needed urgently.
• Prof Stremlau is with the department of international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand.
By John Stremlau
Whether the US goes along with Campbell will depend in part on who wins the November presidential election.
The book was released the same week demagogue Donald Trump won enough pledged delegates to secure the Republican presidential nomination, and if elected, he promises to alter US foreign relations radically. Another uncertainty, of course, is who decides what is in SA’s best interests.
Campbell summarises well the frictions and suspicions that have arisen between SA and the US since the Clinton administration post-1994 co-operation, exemplified by the Mbeki-Gore binational commission, and puts them in the wider context of both countries’ policies towards the rest of Africa and globally.
Readers interested in understanding the differences and similarities between the democratic cultures of SA and the US, the basis for building and sustaining any strategic partnership — variables such as size, location, economic development, racial composition and the number and nature of domestic and international conflicts — will find Campbell’s chapter "The historical trajectory" especially helpful.
Both the US and SA were founded on — and until recently dominated by — white racist male elites. However unjust these regimes were to non-whites and women, the limited democracy did provide for enough due process and rule of law to allow space for argumentation among ruling elites to prevent absolute authoritarianism or complete chaos. Terrible conflicts did arise, over slavery in the US and the relative power of English and Dutch colonials in SA.
Once resolved, new bargains brought peace, but with little justice, as white terrorism enforced post-slavery racial segregation in the US and apartheid rule in SA. Inclusive democracy, albeit still flawed, finally emerged in both countries, prompting the late Kenyan political scientist Ali Mazrui to declare SA and the US to have become in the 21st century the world’s first "global nations".
At the heart of Mazrui’s insight and Campbell’s plea for a revitalised US-SA partnership is allegiance to the concept of civic nationalism, not identities rooted in ethnic, racial or religious differences. In the US, Trump’s appeal to white males, fearful of losing what remains of their historic prerogatives, seems destined to succumb to the newly emerging non-white political majority, abetted by youth, women and the highly educated, who elected and re-elected Barack Obama.
Finding politically acceptable accommodation with Trump’s angry and alienated, but substantial white male constituency, and eliminating racism at all levels of the political system, remain that country’s toughest political challenges. Its economy is sufficiently large and innovative to manage such a transition, but partisan paralysis and popular disgust with the failures of central government make the 2016 election the most important in generations.
In SA, Campbell warns of the danger of rising ethnic nationalism within the ANC, which could fracture the black majority in ways that would make dealing with the long-term structural economic and social problems that are the legacy of apartheid more difficult, if not impossible.
It will also undermine a reassertion of SA’s regional and global leadership, which has been seriously eclipsed since the Mandela and Mbeki administrations.
Campbell believes SA’s institutions are still strong enough to sustain civic nationalism, but new leadership is needed urgently.
• Prof Stremlau is with the department of international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand.
By John Stremlau
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