South Africa: Extremes in Black and White

Negotiations to write a new constitution for South Africa have been under , way since December, but sometimes it seems as if the extremes -- white and black -- might first pull the country apart. The growing strength of the pro- apartheid Conservative Party has forced President F.W. de Klerk to hold a whites-only referendum on March 17 to shore up support for multiracial democracy. Meanwhile, black ultranationalists are demanding nothing less than De Klerk's surrender of power. With the old order crumbling and the shape of the new uncertain, the country is riper than ever for the destructive influence of...