Abstract

The Black Agenda for South Africa

All but the extreme right wing in South Africa and the United States realize majority rule is inevitable in South Africa. Only three questions remain: How long a wait? How violent a struggle? How radical the result? The longer the bloody status quo continues, the harsher the answers to the last two questions will be for blacks, whites and Western interests. The U.S. Administration, with its policy of friendly persuasion of the white government, called constructive engagement, suffers from terminal myopia, as do its liberal and press critics. They all ignore the increasingly apparent fact that blacks will control the dynamic for change in South Africa. Because the white government is too stubborn to offer the far-reaching reforms that are demanded, it can only slow the pace of change and thus increase the death toll.