Outside the South African Consulate in Chicago Tuesday, a group of black South Africans sang the country’s national anthem in celebration as voters trickled in to cast absentee ballots.
In Washington, D.C., Moorosi Mokuena, 27, strode proudly into South Africa’s trade office, holding the yellow, black and green flag of the African National Congress above his head.
What happened in Chicago, Washington and 24 other U.S. cities-blacks, whites and “colored” (mixed-race) South Africans voting together for the first time-was extraordinary.
But then, these are extraordinary times for South Africa.
After the expected 22.7 million votes are tallied Saturday in South Africa’s first all-race election, the gold-, diamond- and platinum-rich nation will begin tearing down its wall of restrictive laws that have separated the races and denied the country’s black majority the right to vote.
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In Chicago, more than 700 South Africans-black, white and mixed-showed up at the South African Consulate-General’s office at 200 S. Michigan Ave. between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. to cast absentee ballots for the political party that will rule the country.
The ballots were to be sent via overnight mail to South Africa Tuesday night and will be tallied on Friday along with others that will be cast in that country through Thursday.
Diplomats at the South African Embassy in Washington estimate that 100,000 South Africans live in the U.S., among them 15,000 in Chicago, 25,000 in New York, 10,000 in Los Angeles and 2,000 in Washington.
For roughly half of those who voted in Chicago-the blacks and the coloreds-placing an “X” next the party’s name represented the end of a bloody journey to freedom.
“It is an exciting moment in our lives,” said Bobby Mauoane, 38, a representative from the ANC office in Washington who cast the first vote in Chicago. “There’s a lot of euphoria going on within us. We are very confident we are moving forward.”
“I’ve traveled all the way from Lawrence, Kan., nine hours by train,” said Siva Reddy, 39, as he stood outside the Chicago consulate with his passport visible in his pocket. “I wouldn’t have missed this for anything. I had to cast my vote.”
Inside the consulate’s reception room where photocopied fliers delineating the positions of the 19 parties covered the walls, whites and non-whites stood together for the first time, each with equal political clout.
“I stood behind a black South African and I said, `How do you feel voting for the first time?’ ” said Hadley Donenberg, 50, an international lawyer who has homes in South Africa and suburban Chicago. “He was very emotional. His mother took photos of him (in line).
“What is democracy about if it’s not the ability to vote?”
After voting, Patrice Masina, 32, of Niles, Mich., ran into a boyhood friend from Soweto, Derrick Mngomezulu, a college student who lives in Carbondale. They had lost contact with each other years ago.
“I grew up with him, literally,” Masina said, his voice nostalgic with disbelief. “We learned to play soccer together, we went to high school together, we suffered together, we buried people together, we were shot at together.
“To be together on a day like this is fulfilling,” he said. “We are both far from home. It makes me feel like it is truly real.”
For South African nationalists like Moorosi Moukena, a large turnout in the election could mean that the ANC, the civil rights organization headed by Nelson Mandela, is on its way to victory.
“This is a very, very, very emotional moment that we all have been working for,” Moukena said. “I have been a victim of the government we are voting out of office today.”
The Georgetown University student said he felt liberated as he left the consulate but added: “If you think it is an exciting moment for me, think of what it must feel like for my great-grandmother.”
She is 108 years old, he said, and will vote for the first time back in South Africa.
Roger West, 36, a white South African national who voted in Washington, said he too was voting for the first time because “the elections before this had no validity in the eyes of the world and should never have.”
“I realize that whites will make no significant contribution to the decision made today. Today is a day for our black brothers and sisters to vote,” West said.
“The fact that I could participate was very humbling and very insignificant in the big scheme of things, but to me it was very important because it means finally there is no boundary between my franchise and their franchise, between my house and their house. We are allowed to do the same things. It is unbelievable.”
While the elation of black South Africans was evident in their song and dance, some whites were fearful or uncertain about the future of their country. But for others, regardless of the outcome, the elections will change the way they feel about their country.
“This is the first time I’ve felt proud to be a South African,” said Nadine Linton, 38, of Deerfield. “We know that the blacks lived with oppression, and we always felt we could not do much to change it. We’re one people and that is how it should be.”