Post by deyana on Dec 6, 2013 9:57:22 GMT -5
As time passes we must never lose sight of how much horror Mandela's mastery spared the world.
It's difficult to imagine now, but back in the 1970s and '80s, the prospect of a peaceful end to South Africa's racist apartheid system seemed like pure fantasy.
The white minority that oppressed the 80 per cent of those people of colour who made up the rest of the country were both unyielding and militarily highly capable.
White Afrikaners in particular, descendants of Dutch settlers who had farmed the land for over 340 years, weren't about to leave or go soft — even as consumer boycotts and other sanctions were directed at them in much of the Western world.
It's difficult to imagine now, but back in the 1970s and '80s, the prospect of a peaceful end to South Africa's racist apartheid system seemed like pure fantasy.
The white minority that oppressed the 80 per cent of those people of colour who made up the rest of the country were both unyielding and militarily highly capable.
White Afrikaners in particular, descendants of Dutch settlers who had farmed the land for over 340 years, weren't about to leave or go soft — even as consumer boycotts and other sanctions were directed at them in much of the Western world.
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