The fact that this new nation has succeeded in fostering economic growth and democracy under the aegis of equalitarian values holds out hope for the rest of the world. For prosperity, freedom, and equality cannot be for white men only. If they are, then they will prove to have been as illusory and impermanent as the slave-based democracies of ancient Greece.

Soon after Algeria's independence in 1962, one of the so-called ‘Historic Leaders’ who had founded the Front de libération nationale (F.L.N.) in 1954, Mohamed Boudiaf, announced that the F.L.N. was dead and declared his opposition to Ahmed Bella's army-backed régime. Boudiaf explained why he disagreed with the policies and actions of the Government in a book entitled Ou va l' Algerie?, ‘Where is Algeria Going?’ (Paris, 1964), and remained in exile in Morocco until called back home in 1992 by the same army to preside over the Haut comité d' état (H.C.E.) that would suppress the electoral process and introduce another state of siege.

Kenya has for many years enjoyed a reputation for political stability, democratic institutions, lack of corruption, and economic growth, unlike a number of other countries in Africa. The Government has sought to emphasise this image in order to retain and attract foreign investment and aid, and to maintain a booming tourist industry. But for some time a corrosion of the rule of law has been taking place behind the facade of legitimacy, a process so accelerated during 1990 and 1991 that many people have questioned the validity of Kenya's reputation.

It is a tragic irony of African nationalism that the potent weapon of democracy, which indigenous politicians wielded so effectively to dislodge European colonialism from the continent, has been misused and perverted in the independence era despite its continuing historical and moral appeal. Although many leaders passionately expressed commitment to the achievement of democracy before attaining state power, their actions thereafter have for the most part proved that they had appropriated this popular concept mainly for its instrumental value; namely, in order to mobilise mass support in the contest for power with the aid of an ideological slogan. Many of the most regrettable acts by African leaders may be attributed either to opportunism and cynicism or to a genuine incomprehension of the principles of democracy, because their implementation ought to have enhanced the human dignity and quality of life of all concerned.

Decolonisation was a policy of the West, as well as a process reflecting the radical transformation of the configuration of power in the international system. The Soviet Union, perceived as poised to dominate Eurasia, had to be ‘contained’ lest it expanded into the Rimland and challenged the West at sea. This geo-political obsession was reinforced by the ‘loss of China’ and the outbreak of the bitter struggle between North and South Korea. But the cold war was about ideology as well as military power, and containment was therefore not just a question of building pacts but of fostering the ‘right’ kind of political régimes.

Probably no other aspect of the South African conflict has elicited more divergent explanations and misinterpretations than the ongoing political violence. It is variously attributed to (1) de Klerk's double agenda and unreformed police; (2) a ‘third force’ of right-wing elements in the security establishment, bent on derailing the Government's negotiation agenda; (3) Inkatha–A.N.C. rivalry, engineered by ambitious Buthelezi in danger of being sidelined as an equal third party; (4) the A.N.C.'s campaign of armed struggle, ungovernability, and revolutionary intolerance; (5) ingrained tribalism, unleashed by the lessening of white repression that merely resulted in ‘black-on-black’ violence formerly held in check; (6) the legacy of apartheid in general, a ‘lost youth’ generation. Helen Suzman, for example, singled out sanctions for at least ‘part of the blame’ in her 1991 presidential address to the Institute of Race Relations, while its director, John Kane-Berman, lists all parties as having ‘bloody hands’.