Apartheid, the systematic and institutionalized discrimination against blacks and other races in favour of whites in South Africa, reigned supreme from the 1948 until the rise of the Frontline States. Formed in 1976, the Frontline States originally consisted of five independent countries – Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia with the objective of ending colonialism and racism in Southern Africa.
When the first objective of the Frontline States was achieved in 1980 after the liberation of Zimbabwe, the organization turned its attention to South Africa. The newly independent Zimbabwe became the 6th Frontline member in this crusade against the apartheid regime of South.
Challenging Pretoria’s Hegemony in Southern Africa
When South Africa officially embraced apartheid in 1948, the task of resisting this obnoxious system was limited mostly to the groups affected – blacks, “coloreds” and Indians. The “wind of change” which blew across Africa in the 1960s radically changed the geopolitical landscape of the continent. The struggle against colonial rule took on a broader dimension when apartheid and colonialism became considered as twin evils.
As African liberation grew in scale, the apartheid regime in Pretoria became increasingly assertive and aggressive. South Africa embarked on a frantic search for friends in the continent in an effort to frustrate or at least limit opposition to apartheid. This was the main motivation for the creation of the Constellation of Southern African States - CONSAS. It was under this scheme that South Africa encouraged the rise of another apartheid regime next-door in Rhodesia under Ian Smith.
In this effort to weaken African opposition to apartheid, South Africa adopted an “aid diplomacy” to woo some African states especially those in which Pretoria had significant economic investments. As economist Richard Hall observes, South Africa by 1964 had about $200 million worth of assets invested in Malawi, Zambia and Rhodesia. This hegemony however came under challenge from the Frontline States.
The Frontline States and the End of South Africa’s Hegemony
The Frontline States did not only represent opposition to apartheid and South African hegemony in southern Africa and beyond, but more, it represented the direct opposite of South Africa’s CONSAS scheme. Their first battleground was in Rhodesia where Pretoria openly supported the illegal regime of Ian Smith while the Frontline States led the rest of Africa in rallying behind black guerrillas.
The eventual triumph of the liberation forces in Rhodesia – Zimbabwe was very significant in this struggle for supremacy between in South Africa and the Frontline States. Firstly it marked the loss of South Africa’s most important ally in the politics of apartheid. Secondly, it marked the intensification and internationalization of the anti-apartheid struggle. Thirdly, the newly independent Zimbabwe provided sanctuary for ANC - African National Congress guerrillas and activists who consistently made the climate very unsafe for the minority whites in South Africa.
While the task of ending apartheid was borne principally by the ANC, there is little doubt that the support for this mission was provided by the Frontline States. This group of countries challenged the economic, military and diplomatic might of apartheid South Africa and sustained the struggle until the end of apartheid in 1994 when black rule was established under Nelson Mandela. With its twin objectives accomplished, the group was renamed SADC – the Southern African Development Community.
Related Articles:
Africa and the Liberation struggle in Zimbabwe
A Discourse on African Socialism
The TANZAM Railway and Chinese Diplomacy in Southern Africa
Sources:
Allen, John. Apartheid South Africa: An Insider’s Overview of the Origin and effects of Separate Development, 2005.
Evans, M. The Frontline States, Southern Africa and Southern African Security: Military Prospects and perspectives, 1984.
Tongkeh Joseph Fowale - Tongkeh Joseph Fowale is a post graduate student of International Public Affairs at LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome - Italy.
