Tomorrow Is Another Country by Allister Sparks

From the Publisher

The companion to Allister Sparks's award-winning The Mind of South Africa, this book is an extraordinary account from South Africa's premier journalist of the negotiating process that led to majority rule. Tomorrow is Another Country retells the story of the behind-the-scenes collaborations that started with a meeting between Kobie Coetsee, then minister of justice, and Nelson Mandela in 1985. By 1986, negotiations involved senior government officials, intelligence agents, and the African National Congress. For the next four years, they assembled in places such as a gamepark lodge, the Palace Hotel in Lucerne, Switzerland, a fishing hideaway, and even in a hospital room. All the while, De Klerk's campaign assured white constituents nothing would change. Sparks shows how the key players, who began with little reason to trust one another, developed friendships which would later play a crucial role in South Africa's struggle to end apartheid.

"A gripping, fast-paced, authoritative account of the long and mostly secret negotiations that brought South Africa's bitter conflict to its near-miraculous end. Sparks's description of these talks sometimes brings a lump to one's throat. He shows how the participants' deep mutual suspicion was gradually replaced by excitement at the prospect of making a momentous agreement—and also by the dawning realization that the people on the other side were human beings, perhaps even decent human beings."—Adam Hochschild, New York Times Book Review

"A splendid and original history. . . . Sparks's skillful weaving of myriad strands—Mandela's secret sessions with the committee, the clandestine talks inEngland between the African National Congress and the government, the back-channel communications between Mandela and the A.N.C. in exile, the trepidation of Botha and the apparent transformation of his successor, De Klerk—possesses the drama and intrigue of a diplomatic whodunit."—Richard Stengel, Time

"Sparks offers many reasons for hope, but the most profound of them is the story this book tells."—Jacob Weisberg, Washington Post

"The most riveting of the many [accounts] that have been published about the end of apartheid."—The Economist

Publishers Weekly

Between 1985 and 1988, Nelson Mandela, then a political prisoner, had secret meetings with South Africa's minister of justice, Hendrik Coetsee, to prepare for Mandela's eventual release. This is one of many revelations in South African journalist Sparks's momentous chronicle. He also details clandestine talks, from 1987 to 1990, between members of Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) and top leaders of the Broederbond, the primary think tank of the Afrikaner nationalist movement and an architect of apartheid. At these meetings, plans for a national coalition government were hammered out, as the Broederbond sought to come to terms with the country's black majority without losing political control. The author documents former president F.W. de Klerk's efforts to undermine Mandela after his release from prison in 1990 by building an anti-ANC alliance around Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha party. He presents compelling evidence that the government secretly funded Inkatha and sowed violence aimed at derailing the transition. Sparks remains optimistic that a multiracial, multiparty democracy will emerge and predicts that South Africa will become an engine of salvation for the whole continent. (Feb.)

Library Journal

This vivid description of South Africa's political transformation from the mid-1980s to the elections of April 1994 is a sequel to Sparks's earlier book, The Mind of South Africa (LJ 3/15/90), which chronicled the history of the rise of apartheid. Much of this readable and informative work is devoted to the details of the secret negotiations that went on for five years before the 1990 release of Nelson Mandela from prison; Sparks corroborates Mandela's autobiographical account, Long Walk to Freedom (LJ 12/94). In addition, our understanding of the white South African government is enlarged, with the author stressing the intelligence, patience, and humanity of many of those involved in the negotiations. Sparks also describes the violence of the period following Mandela's release and preceding the election. While not taking lightly the incredible problems facing South Africa, he lists in the final chapter ten reasons why he believes the country will not slide into disaster as many other African nations have done. This book is recommended for all readers interested in understanding the complexity and the uniqueness of the South African situation.-Maidel Cason, Univ. of Delaware Lib., Newark

Booknews

Nineteen proceedings papers from the Wetlands international symposium, Ontario, Canada, April 1994, focusing on current research in environmental gradients, boundaries, and buffers. The contributors present topics in vertical gradients in peatlands, urban intensification and environmental sustainability, the adaptive mechanisms of plants in wetland gradients, identification and boundary delineation, management goals, wetland buffers and runoff hydrology, and the use of vegetative buffer strips to protect wetlands in Southern Ontario. Includes illustrations and some photographs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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