"Shongweni, South Africa—This dirt-poor Zulu community sits at one end of the Valley of a Thousand Hills, as tradition praises the undulating green countryside. But the feuding that tore Shongweni asunder caused it to be nicknamed the Valley of Death.

"In one year, 150 or more inhabitants were [killed] ... in clashes between members of the Zulu political movement Inkatha and supporters of the United Democratic Front, an affiliate of the African National Congress. Hundreds of homes were burned down in Shongweni and thousands of families fled.

"The killing consuming Shongweni, about 20 miles west of Durban, was appalling even by the standards of other impoverished black communities across Natal, where 4,000 people have been killed in the last four years in fighting involving supporters of Inkatha and the congress.

"But then a miracle descended upon Shongweni. The fighting ceased and a fragile peace that passes understanding has held for the last 14 months.

"Shongweni's inhabitants credit their deliverance to divine intervention.

"'It is difficult to say what ended it,' said Elliot Madonsela, an old man who hid in the woods during the fighting. 'I sincerely believe it was God.' ...

"Everyone agrees that a local shopkeeper and a white riot policeman played an important role in stopping the fighting.

"John Mkhize, the shopkeeper, said the violence around his bustling general store followed a pattern common to that of other Natal townships. ...

"As the war seesawed across the rolling hills, six shops were burned down, leaving Mr. Mkhize store one of the last businesses still operating. ...

"'I asked them [Thulane Zule the local leader of the United Democratic Front, and Victor Sibisi, the Inkatha leader,] why they were fighting,' Mr. Mkhize said. 'They were fighting over nothing—a meatless bone.'

"Maj. Ray Harrald, then a captain in the South African Police, had arrived to command a nearby police unit trained in riot control. He greeted villagers in rudimentary Zulu, unlike the riot police officers who patrolled buttoned up in their vans. He helped an old man and his daughter build a fence around their home. When the local bus company withdrew service to Shongweni because of the fighting. Captain Harrald told his men to give rides to elderly residents in violation of police rules.

"'He completely changed the image of the police as we knew them,' Mr. Mkhize said. 'He was a high-ranking police officer who was prepared to stop and chat and extend his hand. He would come down to the level of the people in Shongweni. This meant quite a lot.'

"Major Harrald became so popular that Mr. Mkhize asked him to mediate the peace talks he was trying to start. Mr. Mkhize said of the policeman: 'We have a roundabout way of expressing a very simple idea. He would sit and listen patiently.'

"Major Harrald describes himself as a born-again Christian motivated by faith that blacks and whites are created in the same image. 'As far as I was concerned, they were entitled to the same treatment as anyone in South Africa,' he said of Shongweni's people in a telephone interview from Pretoria, where he has been reassigned after a promotion.

"On Aug. 29, 1989, after repeated quarrels and walkouts, the adversaries met under a scorching sun and pledged support for an unwritten peace accord. 'It was fantastic,' Major Harrald recalled. 'There wasn't a weapon in sight. One of the most important things they came to realize was that the violence was getting them nowhere.'

"In December, both sides gathered to apologize to their ancestors and ... for a feast at which adherents of the United Democratic Front and Inkatha dined together.

"'We respect each other now,' Mr. Madonsela said. 'The young people don't interfere with us. We can even walk about in the night.'

"Shongweni's success has been studied elsewhere for clues to ending the fighting. 'It should be done by local people because they have undergone the whole experience,' Mr. Mkhize advised.

"A sympathetic police response also helped, but Major Harrald said Mr. Mkhize and the people of Shongweni had resolved not to let anyone disrupt their reconciliation.

"'It is by the grace of God that that peace has held,' he said. 'All I did was I got the ball rolling, and they took it from there.'"

Editors' comment: Major Harrald's appraisal of the situation—"It is by the grace of God that that peace has held"—seems to say it all.

Copyright © 1990 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.