{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03198494825964252, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0028222013170272815, 'mean_word_length': 5.295857988165681, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The South Africa Reader: History, Culture, Politics

Africa’ and asserts that this results from the ‘slow death of liberation movements’ (327). Perhaps presciently, he issued this prognostication just months before the death of Mandela and, it could be argued, the symbolic death of the struggle itself. Despite its large claims, for the most part, Liberation Movements in Power grounds itself in deep statistical and historical analysis, successfully avoiding the idealism or cynicism (take your pick!) that often undergird such studies. That may not prove satisfying to those searching, like our friend in the beginning, for an ‘ideal government’. But it does effectively answer (some of the) many whys and hows about contemporary governance and its myriad frustrations. In constructing a book that continues to move scholarly studies away from the (understandably) emotional and idealistic while also eschewing bitterness, Southall has helped set the stage for a new era not only in southern Africa’s history, but also in its historical and political analysis.