MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Anna Wang

SEARCH FOR MEANING IN SLAY

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

By GENE MUSTAIN and MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writers | Sunday, April 24, 1994

CAPE TOWN—The trial is in its sixth tedious month, but residents of the area anxious whites call the Ring of Fire still come into town to cheer the young comrades accused of murdering Amy Biehl.

From the courtroom balcony, they mouth encouraging words to the alleged killers and mock witnesses who testify about the young American who came to South Africa to help blacks learn about democracy.

“We come because they didn’t do it,” a man in the cheering section snaps at day’s end, before heading back to Guguletu, one of the ring of squalid black townships on the fringes of this otherwise beautiful city.

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Snapshots of Nation at its Birth

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

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

JOHANNESBURG—Not every little story got told in the telling of the story of South Africa’s epic election this past month. But not every little story got told.

  • In the plush Carlton Hotel, President-to-be Nelson Mandela was telling the nation how it had to get a handle on its crime problem. Two blocks away, in a spartan Methodist Church, friends were mourning Ruby N’Kosi.

Ten days ago, she was murdered in her home by four young black youths she caught trying to steal her stereo. She was 60 years old, and she and her husband had spent their lives fighting apartheid.

“The minister told us how tragic it was that just as she was about to realize her dreams and hopes and vote for the first time, she had to come across these young thugs,” said a friend, Themba Ntshalintshali. Read More