In Cape Town last week, motorcycle outriders escorted President Nelson Mandela to Parliament, where a red carpet ribboned down the granite steps. Leaving his limousine, Mandela was greeted by a navy honor guard in spotless whites. Air force jets flew overhead, and a 21-gun salute rang out from nearby Signal Hill. Beginning his second year in office, Mandela had arrived to open a new session of Parliament, and the spectacle suited the occasion--to all who remember apartheid, the very existence of a Mandela administration in South Africa is still amazing.
In his speech Mandela did not dwell on how far the...