The Origins of Non-Racialism

White Opposition To Apartheid In The 1950S

After centuries of white domination and decades of increasingly savage repression, freedom came to South Africa far later than elsewhere in the continent _ and yet was marked by a commitment to non-racialism. Nelson Mandela?s Cabinet and government were made up of women and men of all races, and many spoke of the birth of a new ?Rainbow Nation?. How did this come about? How did an African nationalist liberation movement resisting apartheid _ a universally denounced violent expression of white supremacy _ open its doors to other races, and whites in particular? And what did non-racialism mean? This is the real ?miracle? of South Africa: that at the height of white supremacy and repression, black and white democrats _ in their different organisations, coming from vastly different backgrounds and traditions _ agreed on one thing: that the future for South Africa would be non-racial.