Part 8/9:
The political discourse surrounding Bophuthatswana raises unsettling questions about the nature of its autonomy. Chief Mangope's acknowledgment of colonial indignities is overshadowed by the ongoing reality of dependence on South African governance structures and economic support. As international attitudes remain steeped in a reluctance to endorse apartheid-derived states, Bophuthatswana risks remaining a satellite entity, overshadowed and influenced by its larger neighbor.