Apartheid

IN HIS INAUGURAL speech, President Bush urged us to "abandon all the habits of racism." Even if the president's words are nothing more than feel-good rhetoric, we need to take his words seriously. Today is the beginning of Black History Month, when we celebrate the vibrant lives and achievements of African-Americans. February is also a time to talk about race relations in America. Perhaps the best way to seriously address the problem is to strive for meaningful racial reconciliation between white and black Americans.

MHLWAZI, South Africa - Ten-year-old Lamlile Sithole sat in her fourth-grade civics class at Thembokuhle Primary School on a recent morning, staring at a question scrawled across the chalkboard: "Who is the government?" In unison, Sithole and her 26 classmates recited the answer: "One. The government is the most important body in the country," they chanted. "Two. The government is responsible for many things. Three. They make sure our country is safe for all of us to live in. Four. To provide us with important things like health, education, roads and pensions."

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - South Africa's New National Party, the political force that ran a dictatorship during four decades of apartheid and then ceded power peacefully in democratic elections in 1994, announced Saturday that it was folding for lack of voter support. The leaders and members of parliament from the party will be offered immediate membership in the African National Congress, the majority black party that trounced it in 1994 elections, said NNP spokeswoman Carol Johnson.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Walking past the food delivery bays at a Cape Town technical college, Noor Ebrahim stopped abruptly and pointed to the pavement like a man discovering lost treasure. This, he said, was the spot where his family's home once stood. "It was a double-story house made of bricks," said Ebrahim, spreading his arms wide to show the dimensions of a house that now exists only in his memory. "When they bulldozed my house I was standing right there," he said. "I couldn't stop them.

SOWETO, South Africa - In Mosa Makhubedu's home, voting is not just a right or a privilege, it's an emotional event. His 72-year-old mother, Rose, still vividly recalls South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994 as a day she had waited for from the moment she was born. His sister, Enisa, considers casting her ballot as an almost religious act, a way of honoring all the black South Africans who perished in the struggle against apartheid. "They died for this day," she says. But yesterday, as an estimated 20 million South Africans headed to the polls in the country's third general election, Makhubedu, 25, had this to say: Who cares?

VENTERSDORP, South Africa - Meshack Mbambalala grew up in this farming community understanding that being black meant "there were lines I could not cross," he says. The son of farm laborers, he played rugby and soccer with the white farm boys but was forbidden from eating at the same table with them. He used separate entrances at the post office and grocery stores. At dusk, a siren blared, warning blacks to vacate the white neighborhoods and return to their dreary township, or face arrest.

Archbishop Denis Hurley, 88, who retired as leader of the diocese of Durban, South Africa, and was an implacable foe of the country's apartheid policies, died Feb. 13 in Durban, apparently of a stroke. He was a leader among white church officials opposed to the racial policies of the white South African government. As head of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, he condemned apartheid as evil, and his seat at the Durban cathedral became a rallying point for black African protests.

PRETORIA, South Africa - The final volume of the report by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a heavy 976 pages. Heavy, too, are the contents: the names of thousands of South Africans with brief but chilling descriptions of how they were killed, tortured, or left forever maimed or scarred in three turbulent decades leading up to the country's first democratic election in 1994. The commission's chairman, retired Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, officially ended the panel's work Friday when he handed the last two volumes of its findings to South African President Thabo Mbeki.

The latest play at Everyman Theatre is about the dangers of sacrificing your friends and greatest allies when your cause is just, but your means are not. This isn't a modern-day drama about the United States' foreign policy. It's a 1989 drama set in South Africa and written by that country's pre-eminent playwright, Athol Fugard. My Children! My Africa! takes place in a black township in 1985, a time of intense racial rebellion. Like most of Fugard's plays, its canvas is small; the majority of the action occurs in a classroom, and the cast consists of only three people: a black teacher, his prize male student and a privileged white schoolgirl who visits the school to participate in a debate.

MASON, Mich. -- A divestiture movement is growing at American universities to apply financial pressure on Israel. Such a push helped end apartheid in South Africa, and some faculty and students hope that it will help end Israel's 35-year occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Divestiture calls for the removal of financial support to countries in a bid to change their national behavior or policy. From banning landmines to halting sweatshop labor, divestment has become the tool of choice for making a difference.