Book Notes

Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa’s Transition to Democracy. By Princeton N. Lyman. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2002. Pp. 384. $19.95, paper.

After the April 1994 South African elections, one journalist aptly described the poignancy of the moment: “African adversaries embraced, world leaders hailed a miracle and ordinary people danced in the streets.” Years of intense negotiations led to the first free and fair democratic elections in South African history. The long-awaited vote marked the end to the era of apartheid and the commencement of South Africa’s transition to a democratic government. In Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa’s Transition to Democracy, former U.S. ambassador to South Africa Princeton Lyman gives new perspective to this South African “miracle.” However, while the transition occurred without a devastating civil war, he hesitates to use the term “miracle.” Such a description, he writes, would signify that the South African transition was an aberration, without relevance to other conflicts. Lyman recognizes the lessons from the South African experience that can be replicated in other international conflicts. His account of the American role in the transition exemplifies the important facilitative function American practitioners and policymakers can play in aiding other countries in their efforts to transition to democracy.

Lyman traces the long history of white supremacy in South Africa, starting with the establishment of the first Dutch colony in 1652. When the National Party attained majority support in 1948, it institutionalized racial discrimination in order to preserve the economic and political dominance of the white population. Apartheid was intended to limit the rights of nonwhites and assure that they would not obtain the education and status necessary to acquire civil, political, and legal equality in the future. In response to these discriminatory efforts, resistance to apartheid under the leadership of the African National Congress matured and intensified throughout the 1980s. President F. W. De Klerk realized that South Africa, in order to avoid civil war, had to form a “constitutional relationship with Black South Africans.” He initiated what he saw as “an orderly step-by-step process” to

end apartheid while maintaining the rights of his white constituency. Though the process would sometimes be less than orderly, South Africa was poised to undergo a significant change.

Throughout these domestic developments, American foreign policy towards South Africa was often contradictory; the United States would denounce the existence of apartheid as a political regime while supporting financial and business interests in the country. The policies of various American presidents from the 1940s to the early 1990s produced this fluctuation until American policy stabilized when President George Bush and U.S. ambassadors to South Africa both painstakingly worked towards improved relations with the government and anti-apartheid groups and leaders. Princeton Lyman became the American ambassador in 1992, a critical juncture in South Africa’s history, and became an important player in the unfolding transition.

Though South Africa accepted international support in the negotiations, Lyman points out that South Africans ultimately “owned” the transition process themselves. Under Lyman’s leadership, the United States played an active and intense role, mobilizing international and domestic support for the process and working to bring recalcitrant parties into the negotiations. Nevertheless, the South Africans stood behind the reasoning of De Klerk’s response to President Bush’s offer of mediation help: “It cannot be expected that South Africans should surrender responsibility for determining their own future.” The United States and other countries facilitated the negotiations and helped guard against resistance from the right and left, but the South Africans saw that legitimacy could only be attained by actively pursuing their own compromises. Lyman belives that that this ownership may have been the crucial factor solidifying the final accord between the parties and the post-election transition. Lyman hopes that the lesson to be learned for future conflict resolution is that the United States can successfully play a supportive rather than a commanding role in helping other countries end internal conflicts.

The author describes in detail the final months leading up to the election, giving a behind-the-scenes narrative of the parties and players involved in the negotiations and their efforts to overcome resistance. South African leaders had many fears: low voter turnout, civil disorder, and violent disruption. However, the U.S. observer mission and other international support helped allay these fears and build confidence in the process. When election day finally arrived, the world was relieved when the parties’ apprehensions were not realized.

Lyman’s firsthand experience gives his book a unique perspective on the transition process. In an effort to include comprehensive information about the important players and history-making events, he sometimes interrupts his chronology with stories or names that may be hard to follow for a reader unfamiliar with South Africa’s history. Those interested might look to accounts by others intimately involved with the process, such as Allister

Sparks’s Tomorrow is Another Country,[1] to garner a broader range of perspectives on the transition process. Partner to History is a valuable and engaging explanation of the critical time before, during, and after South Africa’s historic transition. It offers an important glimpse into the facilitative role the United States can play in assisting other countries with conflict resolution and democratic transformation.

—Allison Elgart

[1]. Allister Sparks, Tomorrow Is Another Country: The Inside Story of South Africa’s Road to Change (1996).

Copyright © 2003 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 16, Spring 2003