South Africa's Transition from Apartheid: A Conflict Resolution Analysis

Introduction: Colonization and the Path to Conflict Resolution

The world is changing around us at a rapid pace. We are moving towards a world community, and as we move in that direction, we will resolve the political, social, and economic issues that divide us and prevent us from living in peaceful coexistence. Living in peaceful coexistence within a world community is the first step towards an open world society wherein our cultural and ethnic diversities are celebrated rather than merely tolerated. This path towards a world community is one that will be paved through conflict resolution (CR) at an international level. Even after we bring about peaceful coexistence, we will need to manage the conflict that can be anticipated because of our diversities. In this endeavor, we must utilize the many disciplines upon which CR is premised, and draw on the historical tool of bringing lessons learned forward in conflict resolution. South Africa is a case in point where we can do this.

South Africa offers us a unique insight into the CR process. South Africa, like other African and Asian nations — and other places, including America — was colonized by Europeans. Colonization was a process whereby a more powerful European nation would establish colonies within an indigenous culture or cultures, and build infrastructures, legal systems, and economies that were often founded on exploiting the colonized land's natural resources, such as diamonds, gold, copper, and other minerals. One of the main problems with colonization was that the immigrant Europeans believed themselves to be socially superior to the indigenous peoples whose lands they occupied. The infrastructures that were created had little place or purpose for indigenous people except in subservient roles, or to the extent that colonizers needed them to serve as liaisons to bridge language gaps, to provide labor, or to enforce European laws. All of this stood in stark contrast to the cultural identity and traditions of the indigenous peoples.

During the post-World War II era, the people of the world began experiencing an awakening of social conscience, and the plight of colonized countries and peoples began coming into focus within the world conscience. The struggle for independence from European nations that controlled countries around the world intensified, and leaders of these movements — like Mahatma Gandhi, whose work actually began in South Africa some twenty years before he returned to his homeland of India — became symbols of the movement to decolonize third-world nations and return political control to indigenous peoples.

Decolonizing nations was no small task. It would mean bringing together the descendants of European immigrants and the indigenous people — both of whom had distinctly different cultural traditions and heritages, but who now shared a common infrastructure. The features of the situation and the relationship between the parties (Pruitt and Kim, 2004) were complicated by the new social hierarchy created within the indigenous groups, and by the presence of European descendants who were now second, third, and even fourth generation and who regarded the colonized country as their own homeland. Additionally, the various segments of indigenous society had long been treated as a single identity, but during decolonization they distinguished themselves along the lines of their distinct and multiple cultural identities within the broader society.

These complex political, social, and economic conditions are found in the case of South Africa. Using Marina Ottaway's (1993) book South Africa: The Struggle for a New Order, we have an opportunity to use South Africa as a case study in conflict resolution. South Africa is now more than twenty years into its process of conflict resolution, and we can take Ottaway's assessments of the events and processes and examine them with the value-added hindsight of history.