South Africa

With over 42 million people in a nation about twice the size of Texas, South Africa faces challenging and historic change. After hundreds of years of struggling to end the racism and apartheid that denied the majority of South Africans citizenship in their own country, all races went to the polls in 1994 to vote in South Africa's first non-racial election. Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress and a political prisoner for 27 years under apartheid, became South Africa's first black President.

With a very turbulent history, 11 major languages, a very high infant mortality rate, and a very high unemployment rate among the black population, South African faces a tough economic struggle. The scars of the past are clearly seen on the economy of today.

Many South Africans now face an uphill struggle toward a better life. Long denied equal access to basic services, many people live in squatter areas with poor sanitation, water quality and little or no access to health care. Even more serious, many young black South Africans have little or no formal education, having refused to attend school under apartheid as a way of protesting the poor quality of education available to them. In one sense April 26, 1994, marked the end of a struggle, but for many it is just beginning.

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