Nelson Mandela and the Collapse of South Africa [0:00-2:26]

Along stretches of rural roads in South Africa, roads of white crosses stand in silent lines along the roadside. Each cross marks a life lost in a farm attack, a stark memorial maintained by members of the Boer farming community. To supporters of the memorials they are warning about violence in the countryside. To critics they are a political symbol used to shape an international narrative about South Africa. Those crosses recently became part of an international controversy when President Donald Trump presented images and video of them during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Trump argued the memorials represented evidence of violence directed at white farmers while Ramaphosa rejected the claim and said the idea of race-based persecution in South Africa was a false narrative. To understand how the country reached this moment it is necessary to look back at South Africa's transformation during the 20th century. For much of that period the country was one of the most developed economies in Africa, built on mining, agriculture, manufacturing and a powerful industrial base. The political system that governed that prosperity, however, rested upon apartheid, a structure of racial rule that would eventually provoke one of the most consequential political struggles of the modern era. At the center of that struggle stood Nelson Mandela, his imprisonment, his eventual release and the dismantling of apartheid reshaped South Africa and transformed its place in the world. The legacy of that transformation still shapes the country today and it remains central to the debate over the violence, politics and economic pressures facing South Africa in the present day. How did South Africa falter as a nation after apartheid ended? Who was responsible for the nation's downfall? Did whites really become targets? Why do South African and global media not report honestly on conditions in South Africa? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army Marine Corps veteran and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History.