Participation in civil society was one of the few options for the pursuit of peaceful progressive change in apartheid South Africa, and a range of peace and conflict-resolution organizations (P/CROs) explored this option. These P/CROs were staffed mainly by middle class, white, university educated, English-speaking males, exhibited significant levels of formalization and centralization, depended heavily on international funding, and were often harassed by the apartheid state. P/CROs were active in antimilitarization activities, mediation, promoting contact between white and black communities, encouraging dialog between elites, and research. Extensive links developed amongst P/CROs, between P/CROs and other kinds of antiapartheid nongovernmental organizations, and between some P/CROs and the mass-based resistance movements; collectively, these organizations formed a “multiorganizational field.” P/CROs, in concert with the rest of the multiorganizational field, helped project an “emergent reality” – a nonracial and democratic South Africa; established channels of communication between the apartheid state and the resistance movement; and ripened the climate for political change.
Keywords: apartheid, civil society, emergent reality, mass-based resistance movements, multiorganizational field, nongovernmental organizations, peace and conflict-resolution organizations (P/CROs), political change, South Africa