A New Thing Springs Up in South Africa

On April 27, 1994, seventy-five-year-old Nelson Mandela stood in a queue of ordinary citizens outside Ohlange High School in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, waiting to cast a ballot for the first time in his life. Across South Africa that morning, lines snaked for miles — millions of Black South Africans who had never been permitted to vote stood patiently for hours under the autumn sun, some having walked since before dawn.…