South Africa's Face to the World
Article Summary and Author Biography
More than any other nation today, South Africa's foreign relations are linked indissolubly with the internal workings of its society. Maintaining the country's present degree of interdependence with European and American private enterprise depends on the preservation of an image of internal "stability." In addition, deflecting further international sanctions requires the muffling of Western anxieties about racial injustice and potential racial conflict. Thus the most important aspect of South Africa's foreign policy must be a public relations campaign directed toward the governments and citizens of the industrial democracies. The chief underlying theme of this propaganda campaign is the implicit alliance between white, Christian, democratic and anti-communist South Africa and the "free world."
Donald Woods is the former Editor-in-Chief of the South African newspaper, the East London Daily Dispatch. Detained in October 1977, he fled the country in December 1977, and is now residing in Great Britain. His forthcoming book, Biko, will be published by Paddington Press in May. (c) Donald Woods, 1978.
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