Mighty country? No, beloved country

SOUTH Africa is a relatively poor country, with millions living below the breadline. The country's military is far from strong and ready for action.

But we have Nelson Mandela, the concept of the rainbow nation and Siya Kolisi. We have wonderful wildlife parks, winelands, sunny beaches and natural beauty. We have Cape Town. Some of our music and musicians are popular worldwide. We still have the reputation as the jewel of and gateway to Africa.

As a nation, we can't exactly pay or force anyone to do anything, but we can charm, fascinate, and make the world like us, thus promoting our national interest. It also makes our citizens feel better, plus it’s good for tourism.

So, we have little hard power but quite a bit of soft power.

What is soft power?

The concept is probably as old as humanity, but in 1990 it was given a name in a book by Harvard professor and super-diplomat Joseph Nye, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. Since then, soft power has been the subject of much academic research, and some countries even have policy documents about it.

Nye explains it as follows: “Power is the ability to affect others to get the outcomes one prefers, and that can be accomplished by coercion, payment, or attraction and persuasion. Soft power is the ability to obtain preferred outcomes by attraction rather than coercion or payment." (Read a 2017 Nye article on the subject here.)

America has been the king of soft power for many decades, but its supremacy is fading.

The Peace Corps has sent hundreds of thousands of volunteers worldwide since 1961 to help communities with agriculture, health, education and development. This sounds altruistic, but here is the real purpose: “To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served."

The country is culturally influential, even outside the English-speaking world. Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the space industry, New York, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and other music superstars. Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, Steven Spielberg. Apple, Microsoft, Twitter/X, Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, CNN. America is still the world leader in technology, medicine, media and television.

But interference in other countries' affairs, military adventures, a bully-like and double-dealing foreign policy, the nightmare of the crude narcissist Donald Trump, the madness of Maga, the rejection of election results, the violent attack on the national legislature on January 6, 2021, and the savage “culture wars" have seriously undermined the image of America as a democratic role model and ideal society.

The list above shows that soft power does not primarily depend on the merits of the government of the day or even the political system. Dictatorial China has gained considerable soft power through its assistance to developing states and the upliftment from poverty of hundreds of millions of citizens. Theocratic Saudi Arabia has built up a lot of soft power in its orbit by establishing itself as the guardian of Islam.

Financial and other aid to poorer states can promote soft power, but it is not always effective in itself. India's vaccine diplomacy, as one of the largest producers of vaccines, has indeed earned it considerable soft power.

A tried-and-tested method to make a country's image more positive and to build soft power is to invite journalists and opinion-makers for guided and sponsored visits. I have been on such visits to Canada, America, Germany and Australia.

Foreign students studying at a country's universities are another successful investment in soft power. In 2022, there were about a million foreign students in America and 900,000 in Britain, but the latter country has recently placed restrictions on it.

Australia has trained 80,000 “emerging leaders" from developing states over the past few decades as part of the Australia Awards programme, and spends about R4 billion annually on scholarships, fellowships and short courses for non-Australians.

Sport and “sports diplomacy" are, according to an Australian government  white paper, a big part of the country's soft power. It also has Bondi Beach, Crocodile Dundee and the Sydney Opera House.

New Zealand has the All Blacks and the haka, and until last year, an inspiring and unconventional prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.

The British royal family is a big part of Britain's soft power – Princess Diana is still a worldwide icon. The racial conflicts of the last week have been bad for the UK's soft power but it will always have William Shakespeare.

Israel once had a lot of soft power – a determined, ever-persecuted people who created a paradise out of the desert and gave us the actor Topol and the philosopher Yuval Harari. And Jesus was also a Jew from that region. (Oops, he was born in Bethlehem, part of the Palestinian West Bank now occupied by Israel.)

Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government's bloodthirstiness in Gaza and the disregard for Palestinian humanity have largely swept that soft power off the table.

What is soft power to some is a source of annoyance to others. South Africa's considered case against Israel for its war on Gaza in the International Court of Justice is an example. It was welcomed by most people in the world as an act of principle and leadership, but countries such as America, Britain and Germany were irritated by this backward upstart embarrassing them. And Israel and its supporters were, of course, furious.

South Africa’s soft power

Here is a short video showing how soft power is promoted: a large group of firefighters from South Africa arrived in Canada last week to help fight the wildfires and sang and danced at the airport, as they did last year. Onlookers cheered them, and the footage was broadcast with smiles and positive comments on numerous television channels.

More than 30 years after our miraculous transition from one of the most hated countries in the world to a stable democracy and an open society, the chief architect of that transition, Mandela, is still the strongest pillar of our soft power.

If you tell a taxi driver in Azerbaijan or Iceland or Nicaragua that you are from South Africa, the response is still: Ah, Mandela. His wisdom as an international icon of reconciliation, integrity and courage is still quoted daily.

In his shadow is Archbishop Desmond Tutu, once seen as the world's priest and conscience and also a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, of which he was the chairperson and father figure, is still seen as the model of how to reconcile a post-conflict country. Several books have been written about our TRC, there have even been a few films, and some countries have followed our example. Over the years, I have given lectures on this topic on four continents and even helped Tunisia with its own truth commission.

After Madiba and the Arch, there was a drought in soft power, then came the catastrophe of the rogue, crude, ethnic nationalist Jacob Zuma, along with state capture and the institutionalisation of corruption. Ethnic and racial populism became the order of the day. The antithesis of soft power.

Cyril Ramaphosa struggled during his first term as president to undo this damage, but he became the embodiment of our soft power again when he gracefully accepted his party's defeat in the election and pulled a government of national unity out of the hat. Way to go, comrade.

But the leading agent of our soft power today is surely Kolisi. Not just because he helped make the Springboks world champions again, but because of his life story and the inspiration he embodies.

He is beloved in his own country and in the sports world beyond. When he appears at major sporting or other events anywhere in the world, he is treated like a hero.

Kolisi is our best ambassador, and a symbol of who we want to be and can be.

But there are also big companies that carry our flag, like MTN, which is the largest mobile service provider in Africa, Iran and Afghanistan.

We had Johnny Clegg, Le Zoulou Blanc, and we have Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Tyla and others with all their international music awards. The distinctly South African music style amapiano is resonating around the world. The Ndlovu Youth Choir's success at America’s Got Talent was brilliant for our soft power. Watch here.

William Kentridge is considered one of the world's greatest living artists, and he still lives here. André P Brink and Nadine Gordimer were among the greats in the literary world. Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut is not far behind them, but unfortunately Nobel Prize winner JM Coetzee is now an Australian. G'day mate.

A leading British journalist recently told me that in the circles he moves in, the award-winning documentary film by Craig Foster, My Octopus Teacher, did more to spark interest in South Africa than the embassy in London has done in 30 years.

Many people believe our best showcases are the glittering Camps Bay, Umhlanga or Sandton. Such places exist by the thousands for a dime in places like Dubai, Kuwait, Monaco and San Francisco. Particularly white South Africans would prefer that we tell no one about the past.

Rio de Janeiro is one of my favourite places, but not because of the famous beaches, clubs or restaurants. I spent two days in the impoverished favelas and gained respect for the spirit and culture of the Brazilians.

My visits to the genocide monuments of Rwanda were much more meaningful to me than how clean and orderly the streets of Kigali are.

Our history, as bitter as it may be, is what will truly make people love our country. Robben Island, the Apartheid Museum, the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum.

Our nation's greatest attraction is that after centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid, we have largely made peace with each other, something deemed impossible for decades, and today have an open society with a progressive constitution.

Once, our only contribution to the international lexicon was the word apartheid; today, it is rainbow nation.

We cannot hide poverty, but, as is successfully achieved these days with guided township tours, we can showcase the indomitable spirit and vibrant culture of our poorer areas.

Soft power is more than just a PR exercise. Honesty counts.

But what we do need to do very quickly is to fix our crumbling cities, especially Johannesburg (world-class city my arse) and Durban. Let Cape Town be an example, large parts of it anyway.

And we must stop staffing our embassies with second-rate political appointees.

♦ VWB ♦

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