Syracuse University experts are available to talk to media about the legacy of F.W. de Klerk, the last president to rule over an apartheid South Africa. De Klerk died earlier today at age 85.
Please reach out to Ellen James Mbuqe, director of media relations at Syracuse University, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 412.496.0551, to schedule an interview.
Horace Campbell
Horace Campbell, Professor of Political Science and African American Studies and director of The Africa Initiative of Syracuse University, had this say about de Klerk’s legacy:
“De Klerk was a President who went down in history in lifting the ban on the African National Congress and releasing Nelson Mandela. This was a great moment for the peoples of Africa and the peoples of the world. Why did De Klerk release Mandela? Was it because he had a dream or was it because of the agency of the peoples of South Africa and Africa? There was a global movement for the freedom of Nelson Mandela. Millions of people all around the world supported the sanctions against apartheid. The South African military could not militarily suppress the people of South Africa. The media is missing this aspect of the release of Mandela: the agency of the African people.”
Audie Klotz
Syracuse University pollical science professor Audie Klotz has written about the anti-apartheid movements and is the author of several books and papers about the subject including
Norms in International Relations. The Struggle against Apartheid, Cornell Press.
From the publisher: “After forty years of protest against apartheid, the world celebrated Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as South Africa’s first democratically elected president. Klotz considers why racial discrimination in South Africa became a global concern and why—in a remarkable change of practice—nations and international organizations adopted sanctions against the Pretoria regime. By explaining how the world community actively came to condemn apartheid, Norms in International Relations contributes to broader debates on the role of norms in global politics. Klotz rehearses a fascinating history, combining the power politics of economic sanctions and the normative politics of racial equality. She reenacts the events that resulted in the United Nations decision to oppose apartheid. The author also analyzes anti-apartheid activism in the British Commonwealth and in the Organization of African Unity, and she documents changing attitudes toward South African racial separateness in the United States, Britain, and Zimbabwe.”
