A Political Landscape Turned Inside Out : South Africa: As white parties court black votes, they should also overturn apartheid’s most grating holiday.

South African political life in the apartheid era was pretty straightforward. Most whites united to stem what they saw as the black hordes. Most blacks strove to upset white power.

There were, of course, whites who supported black liberation. And there were blacks who worked actively for apartheid. But these were minuscule blips on the landscape.

Now, with the new Constitution approved and non-racial elections due April 27, the scramble is on to win the votes of the black majority. The practitioner of apartheid, the National Party of President Frederik W. de Klerk, now presents itself as voter-friendly to blacks, and positively integrationist. This reversal has been most evident on high days and holidays, times when historically the cleavage between whites and blacks was most evident. The most divisive event was always Dec. 16, the “Day of the Vow,” on which Dutch-descended Afrikaners led by National Party officials thanked God for their victory over the Zulus in 1838.

The Afrikaners, or Boers, as they were called, had promised the Almighty that, if victory was granted them over the Zulus led by a king named Dingaan in what is now northern Natal province, they would keep that day holy forevermore.

After the battle, countless Zulus lay dead, their blood spilling into a river that is called Blood River to this day. The Boers suffered no deaths and Zulu power was broken.

Dingaan’s Day became the central event of Afrikanerdom, an annual reminder of divine intervention on their behalf. To some, it seemed to suggest a status of chosen people; the resulting racial arrogance culminated in the worst excesses of apartheid.

Rousing and racially divisive speeches were made by Afrikaner political leaders on the anniversary of Blood River. There was even a physical shrine to commemorate the vow. Stonemasons from as far afield as Ireland toiled like Egyptians of old and a formless gray structure arose clumsily on the skyline outside Pretoria in 1938. It was called the Voortrekker Monument, and it powerfully recalled the vow.

Each year, precisely at noon on Dec. 16, a ray of sunshine strikes through the opened roof of the monument and lights up the spot where the vow is commemorated. Afrikaner die-hards in historical garb gaze with moist eyes at a spectacle that, whether they admit it or not, symbolizes a fading world. Young and old alike are caught up in the most binding ritual of Afrikanerdom.

The Zulus (who, incidentally, rose again to challenge British power in Natal later in the 19th Century) and black people in general always found the celebration of a God-inspired white victory provocative. Each Dec. 16 was dogged by controversy. It was the day chosen by the black liberation movement, the African National Congress, in 1961 to launch its campaign of guerrilla violence against the apartheid government. On Dec. 16 this year, the guerrilla army held its last major parade before being absorbed into the new South African Defense Force under agreements negotiated with the government.

The tables are turning, to the point that even traditional foes are getting into bed with one another. The most narrow-minded and chauvinist of Afrikaners, the right-wingers, find themselves in a new alliance with Chief Buthelezi, a leader of the very Zulus their grim forefathers trounced in battle 155 years ago.

The so-called Freedom Alliance, a hodgepodge of right-wing whites and conservative blacks, includes Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party, which claims mass support among the Zulus (a claim challenged by other groups, notably the ANC.)

The Freedom Alliance is warning of civil war if the main parties to constitutional negotiations push ahead with plans for a political order that does not give dissident groups the autonomy they demand.

So, unlike previous occasions, when Afrikaners thanked God for victory over the Zulus, and Zulus conveniently diverted their attention to more encouraging events, such as commemorating Shaka, the Black Napoleon in their history, this year the festivities had an ironic twist. Unless last-ditch efforts to settle differences succeed, the future could see some Boers and Zulus fighting in the same cause; this time, they could lose together.

The most sensible thing, of course, would be to cut the Day of the Vow out of the national calendar of public holidays. Something more peaceful, more unifying--more in tune with Martin Luther King Day in the United States--would be appropriate.