One of the major constraints to nation-building in post-colonial Africa is that externally generated and directed processes of state formation and development have tended to undermine indigenous values, institutions and patterns of solving problems. This has fostered a tendency to look outside the continent for solutions to Africa's problems. The challenge now is t...

This article stresses the progress achieved in resolving the white-black conflict in South Africa since the end of the apartheid era (emphasizing H W van der Merwe's work). However, the author also argues that further conflict-resolving approaches are needed to overcome the difficulty of racial discrimination.