South Africa in comparative context

The South African debate is replete with appeals to comparative experience. All actors make use of analogies. Most defend their beliefs against their opponent's analogies by asserting South Africa's uniqueness, and indicating the consequent inappropriateness of the analogy at hand. In the process of dislodging a colonial overlord, economic, military and political costs had to exceed their benefits. The speed of the decolonisation process in Africa indicates just how dramatically and rapidly the balance of interests did change. A domestic form of the colonial analogy is that which compares South Africa with Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. The analogy is used most frequently by groups on the right of the South African political spectrum. Left-wingers also make the Zimbabwe analogy. At times it is made to indicate the inevitable direction of change in South Africa. At other times it is used to suggest that the most radical or militant expression of black nationalism is the form which will eventually triumph.