Foreign Policy Blogs

Hurtling Toward the Divorce

The breakaway faction of the African National Congress will not succumb to name calling or fear as it prepares for the final steps that will lead to the establishment of a new party in South African politics. The leaders of the dissidents along with their supporters will meet this weekend in what will likely result in a new organization formalizing the recent separation as a political divorce barring some unforeseen detente and reconciliation in the days to come. Mark this down as the weekend that will embody the biggest change in South African politics since the CODESA era that led to the 1994 elections.

 

Author

Derek Catsam

Derek Catsam is a Professor of history and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. He is also Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University. Derek writes about race and politics in the United States and Africa, sports, and terrorism. He is currently working on books on bus boycotts in the United States and South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s and on the 1981 South African Springbok rugby team's tour to the US. He is the author of three books, dozens of scholarly articles and reviews, and has published widely on current affairs in African, American, and European publications. He has lived, worked, and travelled extensively throughout southern Africa. He writes about politics, sports, travel, pop culture, and just about anything else that comes to mind.

Areas of Focus:
Africa; Zimbabwe; South Africa; Apartheid

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