Beyond the Miracle: Inside the New South Africa

Sparks has written a trio of books about South Africa with this book being the third. I've also read the first one, The Mind of South Africa, but not the second, Tomorrow Is Another Country. On balance, I found The Mind of South Africa stronger than this book. In part, this is simply because the evolution of a system like apartheid is such fascinating reading. This is also partly because the nature of this book-- a "where are we now?" book-- is time limited. It was published in 2003, and it left me to wonder what Sparks would have made of the last four years. I think that he would have been kind. One of the things that strikes me about Sparks through both of these books is his strong humanism. He does not want to believe in villains. I get the feeling that he is probably the kind of guy who irritates everyone at a party by defending whoever is under discussion. He wanted to believe that Mugabe would do the right thing in The Mind of South Africa. Even in this book, although he owns his mistakes about his hope for Mugabe his tone is more one of sadness than condemnation. Sparks seems to see the whole sad mess in South Africa as not having any heroes or any villains-- just victims and participants. I like that approach. It is the kind of view that I naturally tend to agree and sympathize with. But actually, I think that the point of the book is that he does not see the situation in 2002-3 South Africa as a sad mess. He sees it as an imperfect triumph, and I'm not sure that he isn't right. The more that I learn about the country and the more that I hear about the history, the more amazed I am that things didn't collapse into fire and destruction. There are problems, huge ones, but they were largely there to begin with. He has the same worries about Mbeki that I think many observers have-- his strange stance on AIDS, his silence on Zimbabwe. Sparks doesn't gloss anything over, but he largely repeats a message of hope. I think that this is a message worth repeating. A good book, and interesting.

In this fascinating book, author and journalist Allister Sparks takes us inside South Africa, ten years after the miraculous end of Apartheid. Though many inside the African National Congress (ANC) expected that this would be the beginning of their "Happily Ever After," South Africa continues to face many challenges, many of which they did not expect. But, this is not a doom-and-gloom, pseudo-exposé of South Africa, instead it is a hopeful look at a country in transition - facing daunting problems, but moving towards a brighter tomorrow. Now, what can I say about this book? First of all, I was quite saddened that the author brought along a bag full of biases to his analysis. He has an orthodox Leftist viewpoint which he spills out all over the book. For example, in his view all of South Africa's problems are either holdovers from the Apartheid era, or are caused by outside factors over which the ANC has no control. But, if you bear in mind that the author is a journalist, rather than an objective sociologist, you can let yourself ignore his analysis, and get down to the real strength of the book - the author's penetrating report on the state of South Africa today. The author does an excellent job of looking at the political and social changes that are redefining South Africa, and explaining them in a clear and easy to read manner. It is hard to find resources that discuss modern, post-Apartheid South Africa, but this is one that is really great! So, if you want to know what South Africa is like today, ten years after Apartheid, then this is a great book to start with.

Step into any bookstore in South Africa and you'll see that the country is awash in social science literature (most of which is ephemeral and undigestible) while sorely lacking in modern histories that put post-apartheid events and developments in a framework for intelligent general readers. This book is a notable and admirable exception. Written by a leading South African journalist and non-academic historian, it's a readable, comprehensive overview of modern South Africa, with chapters on economics, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the ANC's performance in office, HIV/AIDS, race relations, and more. The judgments are balanced and Sparks weaves together anecdotes and analysis in the best journalistic fashion. The book ably reflect his decades of reporting on South Africa. The only real deficiencies are the lack of "inside" information on the ANC and Spark's failure to convincingly explain the paradoxes swirling around President Thabo Mbeki, a university-trained economist who is undeniably brilliant but whose crackpot medical theories have hamstrung effots to fight HIV/AIDS and have made South Africa the laughingstock of the scientific world. These gaps are at the center of the book (hence my rating of four stars) but probably aren't Sparks' fault: although the ANC now presides over a democratic state, it spent decades in underground resistance to apartheid, and remains highly secretive and quick to punish members who speak out against the party line. I'm not sure whether anyone outside of the party's inner circle truly knows what makes Mbeki & company tick. In contrast, the chapters on the media sparkle with first-hand accounts of mismanagement and internecine rivalry. If only Sparks' had been able to write comparably illuminating chapters on the ANC!I'm an American living in Johannesburg.

Sparks has written a winner with Beyond the Miracle. With the exception of one or two niggling errors, it is thoroughly researched, littered with pertinent observations and unfailingly readable. Perhaps most importantly it offers a commendably balanced view of the successes and failures of post-apartheid South Africa. As a white South African I was simultaneously surprised and encouraged by much of the book's content. Although, due to the wide variety of topics looked at, it isn't particularly comprehensive, I would still recommend it as essential reading for anyone with an interest in South Africa.