Book Reviews : South Africa: No Turning Back edited by Shaun Johnson. London: The Macmillan Press, in association with the David Davies Institute of International Studies, 1988. 390pp. Cased £35.00, Paper £16.95
| Author | Sampie Terreblanche |
| Date | 01 May 1989 |
| Published date | 01 May 1989 |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711788900900506 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
447
BOOK
REVIEWS
South
Africa:
No
Turning
Back
edited
by
Shaun Johnson.
London:
The
Macmillan
Press,
in
association
with
the
David
Davies
Institute
of
International
Studies,
1988.
390pp.
Cased
£35.00,
Paper £16.95.
Anyone
who
may
be
of
the
opinion
that
the
South
Africa
of
1989
is
more
or
less
the
same
country
as
the
South
Africa
of
1980,
ought
to
read
South
Africa :
No
Turning
Back.
When
the
history
of
South
Africa
is
written,
in
say
2020,
the
1980s
will
not
be
.
regarded
as
the
decade
in
which
the
apartheid
system
was
abolished.
But
it
will
in
all
’
probability
be
regarded
as
the
decade
when
a
decisive
turning
point
was
reached.
Before
’
the
1980s,
the
extraparliamentary
forces
against
the
apartheid
system
were
relatively
weak
and
unorganised
and
certainly
not
well
integrated.
At
the
end
of
the
1970s,
the
protagonists
of
the
apartheid
system
had
ample
reason
to
believe
that
the
extra-parlia-
mentary
forces
against
apartheid
could
easily
be
defeated
and
the
system -
if
necessary
in
a
somewhat
adapted
form -
could
be
perpetuated.
If,
at
the
end
of
the
1980s
the
protagonists
of
apartheid
are
still
of
the
same
opinion
they
are
clearly
deluding
themselves.
This
book
gives
an
excellent
description
of
the
dramatic
changes
which
have
taken
place
in
the
organisational
structures
of
South
Africa
during
the
1980s.
The
twelve
chapters
contain
an
origmal
description
and
a
penetrating
analysis
of
widely
different
(but
very
relevant)
fields.
Lord
Bullock
states
correctly
in
his
Foreword
that
’the
book
is
more
than
a
collection
of essays’.
It
is
in
fact
a
fascinating
contribution
towards
’a
better
understanding
of
the
[South
African]
problem’.
This
problem
was,
as
the
Foreword
says,
described
by
Gladstone
more
than
a
century
ago
as
one
that ’...is
destined
to
become
the
one
great
unsolved,
perhaps
unsolvable,
problem
of
our
colonial
system’.
Although
the
authors
are
wise
enough
not
to
try
their
hands
at
possible
solutions,
they
have
succeeded
in
’capturing’
the
probable
direction
and
momentum
of
the
processes
unfolding
in
the
South
African
drama.
The
description
of
what
has
happened
in
South
Africa
since
1976,
by
Shula
Marks
and
Stanley
Trapido
in
Chapter
1,
is
vividly
summarised
in
the
following
sentence:
’By
the
mid-1980s
the
problems
confronting
the
South
African
state
had
become
truly
formidable
as
the
black
organisations
challenged
the
stability
of
the
social
order
without
being
able
to
transform
it
and
as
the
State
proved
incapable
of
re-establishing
its
own
authority
except
through
increasingly
coercive
measures’
(my
italics).
This
state
of
affairs
in
the
mid-eighties
must
not
be
interpreted
in
a
static
way.
In
Chapters
2
to
5
a
clear
documentation
is
given
about
two
things:
firstly
that
’in
the
years
since
the
1976
Soweto
uprising,
the
consciousness
of
South
Africa’s
black
population
has
been
radically
transformed’
and,
secondly,
of
the
effective
ways
in
which
those
involved
in
the
liberation
struggle
have
become
mobilised
into
(seemingly)
undefeatable
organisational
structures.
In
Chapter
2
Howard
Barrell
gives
a
description
of
’The
Outlawed
South
African
Liberation
Movements’
with
special
attention
to
the
international
diplomatic
gains
of
the
liberation
movements
and
especially
the
ANC.
In
Chapter
3
Shaun
Johnson
describes
’The
Soldiers
of Luthuli:
Youth
in
the
Politics
of
Resistance
in
South
Africa’.
If
readers
of
this
book
are
going
to
read
only
one
chapter,
it
ought
to
be
this
one.
According
to
the
author,
Archbishop
Desmond
Tutu
highlighted
the
strain
of
martyr-
dom
which
was
running
deep
among
the
youth,
saying
’We’ve
got
a
new
breed
of
children.
They
believe
that
they
are
going
to
die ...
and
the
frightening
thing
is
that
they
actually
don’t
care.’
In
Chapter
4
Philip
van
Niekerk
describes
the
role
of
the
trade
union
movement
in
the
politics
of
resistance
with
special
reference
to
COSATU
and
Cyril
Ramaphosa.
Accord-
ing
to
Van
Niekerk
one
cannot
understand
the
dynamics
of
’the
long
haul
from
power-
lessness
to
posing
a
serious
challenge
to
the
might
of
the
mining
houses’
without
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