MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Afrikaans

VISIT TO SOWETO_A tormented past, uncertain future Poverty, violence crowd out hopes

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer | Sunday, April 10, 1994

SOWETO—Seeing this famous black township brings to mind ruins of war, of battle just done.

On nighttime approach—home to the Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, and Tswana tribes—the flames of random trash fires send millions of sparks into an eerie sky heavy with the stench of rotting animals.

This is Soweto—land of misery, despair, and heartbreak, of senseless deaths, crushing poverty, frightening crime and urban squalor.

Funeral parlor owners have the most lucrative business, the most beautiful homes and affluence that rival that of Johannesburg’s wealth white suburbs.

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OUTRAGE_MEETING HATRED IN SOUTH AFRICA: Black Daily News Reporter is Attacked as He Covers Rally

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer | Friday, April 29, 1994

RUSTENBURG—I was not afraid. I wanted to see them when they attacked me.

“Kaffir, you have to leave; you are not wanted here,” one said.

“Kaffir” is South Africa’s ugliest racial epithet, like its U.S. equivalent, “nigger.”

“Wait a minute, you invited us,” I said.

The first punch landed on my neck. Another kicked me on the left hip. One man grabbed me in a strangle-hold. I wriggled free and stretched out my arms to ward off blows as arms from everywhere grabbed at and punch me and people yelled words at me in Afrikaans.

I just thought, “Wow, what the hell is going on here?”

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NEW CHALLENGES FOR A NEW NATION_Mandela Facing a Huge Task

By Homepage, New York Daily News, South Africa: The Freedom VoteNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and GENE MUSTAIN, Daily News Staff Writers | Sunday, May 1, 1994

JOHANNESBURG—It was a symbolic moment too rich to miss—the eclipse of apartheid and a new day dawning on black aspirations for power.

Under a full moon about two poignant minutes apart, before and after midnight one day last week, a white soldier lowered from the flagpole for the last time South Africa’s old flag and a black soldier raised its new colors.

“The old flag meant a lot to me, but I am prepared to serve under the new flag,” said Cpl. Anton Jooste, the white soldier.

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