Where race rules, liberty flees.(South Africa: The First Man, The Last Nation)(Book Review)

South Africa: The First Man, The Last Nation By R. W. Johnson Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 288 pages, $31.80

South Africa holds a far more prominent place in international politics than its economic size would suggest it should. Its influence comes from its extraordinary past. South Africa's transition from the dark days of apartheid to democracy was far more peaceful than the doomsayers' predictions. Perhaps because of this moral capital, South Africa is now considered a leading developing country. It may have to compete with Nigeria for economic importance, but politically, it is certainly the most important country in Africa.

R. W. Johnson is a South African historian and political commentator, one-time Oxford don, and former director of South Africa's Helen Suzman Foundation, which has supported the country's transition to democracy. His writings, including this book, defend the classical liberal principles of the rule of law, protection of property rights, limited government, and the free market. These unwavering principles make the book unpopular among South Africa's current ruling elite, who, like many other rulers, are attracted to statism and big government.

This book charts the country's history from the first hominids to today. Johnson details the earliest inhabitants of South Africa, the Khoisan hunter gatherers, later devastated by the Bantu peoples who moved down from the North, as well as the Europeans who settled in the Cape. Johnson describes in some detail the many wars and skirmishes between the various Bantu tribes. He also gives a clear history of the battles between the early European rivals in South Africa, and between the Europeans and the Bantu tribes. His analysis of the run-up to the Anglo-Boer War and the politics thereafter provides an important backdrop to the beginnings of apartheid, and the current political make-up of South Africa.

Johnson offers an excellent summary and analysis of the apartheid policies and their roots in colonial rule. After the 1948 election, war leader Jan Smut's United Party was defeated by the Nationalist Party. The "Nats" then began their task of ruthlessly separating the races and controlling the economy to advance Afrikaner interests.

Apartheid was a massive exercise in social engineering, classifying people by race, and establishing economic pecking orders on the basis of those classifications. Millions of people were dispossessed and crowded into nominally independent homeland states where they had little means of supporting themselves and led wretched lives. The Nationalist government interfered in almost every facet of the economy, maliciously frustrating any black business ...