The African Bush

On the second day of George W. Bush's tour of Africa, Miriam Mahlambane sat under a jacaranda tree as the President's motorcade swept through the gates of Pretoria's Union Buildings, a historic complex of government offices perched on a hill overlooking South Africa's capital. The matronly Mahlambane, a witch doctor in a bright print dress, animal skins and strings of clattering beads, threw a cluster of bones, stones and wood onto the ground, then peered at the pattern they made to divine Bush's intentions in coming to this place. "Hau!" she exclaimed. "This man, he is powerful. He brings great strength."...