The country that I chose
to study the causes and effects of political violence in is South Africa. The
specific events of political violence that I will explore are the conflicts
between the African National Congress (ANC) and the apartheid government in the
final years of apartheid, the 1980s and early 1990s. The violent events that
took place are an example of a revolution, and in my paper I will attempt to correctly
categorize this instance of political violence and see how well the textbook’s definitions
actually work.
Ever since 1948 when
the National Party came into power, the country of South Africa was ruled by a
racially segregated “apartheid” government. Under apartheid, white and black
people were separated, legally bound to be segregated in areas such as
education, medical care, public services, the neighborhoods they lived in, recreational
activities, etc.[i]
Under apartheid, blacks were heavily repressed, deprived of their citizenship
and not allowed to vote. This led to a black revolution, as they rebelled,
protested, and sought to come into power to overcome the apartheid government that
held them down. According to the UCDP/PRIO Armed Conflict Dataset, the major
conflicts between ANC (black political party) and the country of South Africa
began in 1981 and carried on throughout the eighties into the early nineties until apartheid was finally abolished[ii].
The textbook’s
definition of a revolution is that it is an “armed conflict within a sovereign
state between insurgents and the state, in which (1) both the insurgents and
the state claim the allegiance of a significant proportion of the population;
(2) authority over the state is forcibly transferred from the state to the
insurgents, and (3) the insurgents subsequently bring about wholesale political
change.”[iii]
I feel that this definition almost
perfectly describes the type of revolution that took place in South Africa. The
only part of the definition that wavers from the conflict between the
insurgents (ANC) and state (National Party apartheid government) is when it is
defined as an “armed” conflict. Much of what the ANC and black insurgents in
townships did was not armed, but was in small-scale forms of riots, boycotts,
bombings, and beatings, but not necessarily armed militant-style attacks[iv].
Occasionally armed attacks would occur, but as a whole the revolution would not
be thought of as an armed conflict. However, the rest of the definition of a revolution
is spot on, as the ANC did claim the allegiance of a huge proportion of the
country’s population (nearly all black South Africans), and authority over the
state was transferred, bringing about wholesale political change, as the ANC
eventually won the right to vote for blacks and Nelson Mandela (ANC) won the
1994 presidential elections, bringing civil rights to black South Africans and
abolishing the apartheid government and its racist policies. Because of the
revolution, the foundations for a new democratic government in South Africa
were laid.
In attempting to categorize the causes behind the
revolution that took place in South Africa, I’ve felt that the main causes and
dimensions of the revolution are motivation, the identity of the actors, and
the goal. The motivation and goals go hand in hand, as the blacks were
motivated by the repression that bound them to rise up and bring about change
in the country. The ultimate goal was obviously to gain rights for their
people, and the identity of the actors was an important cause because it was
their identity as repressed black South Africans that united them.
Later on in the chapter, the book states that “revolutions
are a subtype of civil war in which the winning side not only takes control of
the state but implements radical change, such as bringing previously excluded
groups of people into power.”[v]
To me, this solidifies the
categorization of the political violence of the ANC in South Africa as a
successful revolution.
[i] Wikipedia:
Apartheid in South Africa (2012). Apartheid.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid_in_South_Africa#Final_years_of_apartheid>
[ii] Department
of Peace and Conflict Research (2012). UCDP/PRIO Armed Conflict Dataset.
<http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/datasets/ucdp_prio_armed_conflict_dataset/>
[iii] Samuels,
David J. Comparative Politics. (pg. 268-269).
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Education. 2013.
[iv] Wikipedia:
Apartheid in South Africa (2012). Final Years of Apartheid.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid_in_South_Africa#Final_years_of_apartheid>
[v] Samuels,
David J. Comparative Politics. (pg.
273). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Education. 2013.
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