Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa's Transition to Democracy (review)

Mandela. Apartheid. South Africa. How many marginally engaged observers of international affairs cannot comprehend the social and political importance of the changes that occurred there in the early 1990s? Not many. The dissolution of what was then the world's only overtly racist society was accomplished in only a few short years through intense internal negotiation and international pressure. The first free South African elections of 1994 were not only the result of human endurance in the face of more than a century of racial discrimination, internal displacement, and violence. They were also due to the efforts of a proud and dedicated group of South Africans of all races, who, despite their differences, successfully brought a peaceful, South African-led end to apartheid.

It is into the inevitable turmoil and disagreement surrounding the negotiations to end apartheid that Princeton Lyman, U.S. ambassador to South Africa from August 1992 through December 1995, brings readers of his book Partner to History: The U.S. Role in South Africa's Transition to Democracy. Assigned to observe and influence a tense situation without a recent historical precedent, he carefully balanced diplomatic integrity, U.S. interests, and concern for South Africa's future to contribute to a carefully-crafted negotiated settlement that many outside observers felt would either not happen, or would be accompanied by significant violence. Recounting instances when he feared South African civil war as much as an economic collapse, Lyman faithfully recounts the details of his role in the peace process, as well as his relationships with the most prominent South African leaders of that time: African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela, South African President F.W. de Klerk, Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and ANC deputy leader Thabo Mbeki.

Lyman's personal interest in conflict resolution made him an ideal candidate for the post in South Africa during this crucial period. Typically, there are three types of U.S. ambassadors in Africa: the cowboys (think Smith Hempstone in Rogue Ambassador ¹ ), the "do-gooders" who are focused mainly on development, and finally, the true, albeit rare, diplomatic historians, patient articulators of U.S. positions, and political theorists. Fortunately for the United States and for South Africa, Ambassador Lyman was this final type.

Though Lyman and other foreign diplomats played a key part in ending apartheid, the process was primarily a South African one. Shortly after Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990, the U.S. government offered to play a "direct, active, and prominent" role in negotiating an end to apartheid. Instead, the South Africans asked the United States and the rest of the international community to play a secondary role. This was a crucial decision. It allowed South Africans to control their own peace process, and eventually to find an acceptable internal solution to an internal problem, without being undermined later by critics wondering if various international actors had unduly influenced the negotiations. This decision defined the transition process, and thus, defined Lyman's role as ambassador.

Partner to History is not, and rightly does not intend to be, a book for those without a background in South African affairs. It is an intimate portrait of the emergence of racial equality in South Africa that requires a basic understanding of history, colonialism, and the political and economic repression put upon South Africa's majority population by a largely Dutch (Afrikaans) and English ruling class. In addition, it is an excellent book from a U.S. Africanist's perspective, because it contains so many details. Lyman's advantage in telling the story is the fact that he lived through the transition to a multi-racial South Africa, thus giving him the ability to recount the most intimate and politically perilous moments of the negotiations.

One of the many strengths of Lyman's...