
The Demise Of Apartheid Was One Of The Great Achievements Of Postwar History, Sought After And Celebrated By A Progressive Global Community. Looking At These Events From The Other Side, An African Volk Explores How The Apartheid State Strove To Maintain Power As The World Of White Empire Gave Way To A Post-colonial Environment That Repudiated Racial Hierarchy. Drawing Upon Archival Research Across Southern Africa And Beyond, As Well As Interviews With Leaders Of The Apartheid Order, Jamie Miller Shows How The White Power Structure Attempted To Turn The New Political Climate To Its Advantage. Instead Of Simply Resisting Decolonization And African Nationalism In The Name Of White Supremacy, The Regime Looked To Co-opt And Invert The Norms Of The New Global Era To Promote A Fresh Ideological Basis For Its Rule. It Adapted Discourses Of Nativist Identity, African Anti-colonialism, Economic Development, Anti-communism, And State Sovereignty To Rearticulate What It Meant To Be African. An African Volk Details Both The Global And Local Repercussions. At The Dawn Of The 1970s, The Apartheid State Reached Out Eagerly To Independent Africa In An Effort To Reject The Mantle Of Colonialism And Redefine The White Polity As A Full Part Of The Post-colonial World. This Outreach Both Reflected And Fuelled Heated Debates Within White Society, Exposing A Deeply Divided Polity In The Midst Of Profound Economic, Cultural, And Social Change. Situated At The Nexus Of African, Decolonization, And Cold War History, An African Volk Takes Readers Into The Corridors Of White Power To Detail The Apartheid Regime's Campaign To Break Out Of Isolation And Secure Global Acceptance.
How did the apartheid regime attempt to legitimize its rule by co-opting the language and norms of the post-colonial global order? Jamie Miller, a historian specializing in Southern African politics, utilizes extensive archival research and interviews with former apartheid-era leaders to analyze the regime's strategic pivot. The book argues that the white power structure did not merely resist change, but actively sought to rebrand itself as an authentic, anti-colonial African entity to secure international acceptance during the 1970s.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Historians and political scientists recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of the apartheid state's diplomatic and ideological survival tactics. Scholars frequently note the depth of the archival research and the clarity with which Miller explains the regime's complex attempts to navigate a changing global landscape.
Page Count:
352
Publication Date:
2016-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190274840
ISBN-13:
9780190274849
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