Nelson Mandela, Freed

LIVING, as we do, in the age of information overload, we know everything about South Africa except what it is like. When I visited the country for the first time, I was of course interested initasa political journalist. But a more deep-seated, if less “serious,” interest stemmed from reading Twenties and Thirties novels. I had been intrigued by the way the British of that period reacted to southern Africa—rather as the New Englanders of a century earlier had reacted to the American Southwest. There was the appeal of the exotic but spare landscape, the wide open spaces and fresh opportunities.

In the event, Johannesburg, where I entered the country, is so like my native Los Angeles that it brought tears to my eyes. I return home often enough that I don’t normally need to feel nostalgia for L.A.; but eight thousand miles away, the same mixture of bougainvillea, hibiscus, oleander, and muffler shops made a powerful impression.

About the Author

Linda Bridges

Ms. Bridges is the former editor-at-large of National Review.

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LIVING, as we do, in the age of information overload, we know everything about South Africa except what it is like. When I visited the country for the first time, I was of course interested initasa political journalist. But a more deep-seated, if less “serious,” interest stemmed from reading Twenties and Thirties novels. I had been intrigued by the way the British of that period reacted to southern Africa—rather as the New Englanders of a century earlier had reacted to the American Southwest. There was the appeal of the exotic but spare landscape, the wide open spaces and fresh opportunities.

In the event, Johannesburg, where I entered the country, is so like my native Los Angeles that it brought tears to my eyes. I return home often enough that I don’t normally need to feel nostalgia for L.A.; but eight thousand miles away, the same mixture of bougainvillea, hibiscus, oleander, and muffler shops made a powerful impression.