The Birth of a New South Africa

Shelley Butler is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at York University
studying cultural politics at the University of Cape Town in South
Africa.

T.R.H. Davenport taught in the Department of History at Rhodes
University in Grahamstown, South Africa, until his retirement in 1990.
This book, a published version of his 1995 lectures in the Joanne
Goodman series at the University of Western Ontario, is an insider
account of South Africa’s recent history of transition from an
apartheid government to a democracy. The book covers four main areas:
the release of Nelson Mandela from jail in 1990 and events that led to
his inauguration as president in 1994, the national process of
reconciliation that began in 1995, the 1996 adoption of a constitution,
and the challenges facing the transitional government. The lectures are
journalistic in tone, and offer an event-oriented account of these
political and cultural developments. Missing is a narrative voice to
help readers understand the stakes of these developments and
Davenport’s own relationship to them. As well, Davenport fails to
include the voices of the main players in the events he describes, which
renders the text rather dry.

Although other recent accounts of South Africa’s transition period
provide more historical context and offer more analysis of contemporary
tensions, The Birth of a New South Africa is, nevertheless, a useful
resource for its detailed technical information about South Africa’s
reconstruction process.