ABSTRACT

The intensification of the crisis in the southern part of the African continent has focused the attention of much of the world there. Since the mid-1970s, when radical governments in both Angola and Mozambique emerged after protracted wars of liberation against the Portuguese, much of that attention had been devoted to the precise character of the relations between these countries and the Soviet bloc. Increasingly, however, interest has shifted to the deepening struggle inside the Republic of South Africa itself, a country whose racial policy of apartheid has made it the object of growing criticism, albeit of a rather mild sort, by most of the leading Western countries. South Africa is clearly the jewel on the continent, having vast mineral resources, being Africa’s most industrialized economy, and strategically located on one of the major global sea lanes – making it of prime geo-political importance. Little wonder, then, that the outcome of events in this part of the world is of intense interest to both East and West.