South Africa is about to become more 'African'

With Mr. Zuma – a man with a grade-school education, a polygamist, who has definitely tilted his party away from the monied suburbs and toward the black African masses – many South Africans are finally coming to grips with what it means to live on the African continent."

The Ndebele people have a saying 'Indla muva yi nkosi,' which means 'the king eats last,' " says Matshazi, referring to an ethnic group living in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Africans expect their kings to share the largesse in a trickle-down fashion, holding massive feasts for the elders of the tribe and making decisions only after the elders have formed a consensus, he says. "An African leader who feeds himself first, like [Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe], would be seen as a useless leader, because he doesn't share."

SHOOT: So if you decide your leader is useless, what do you do? In Africa the answer is that you suffer.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Johannesburg – Rising crime, crumbling roads, pernicious corruption, and landslide victories for the ruling party in charge: these are the signs that South Africa – so "First World" at first appearance – is now on the decline. But the one complaint that seems to top them all here these days is that the country is becoming more "African." That particular gripe usually comes from well-to-do South Africans – white and black – who are worried about the trajectory of the country once populist leader Jacob Zuma takes power after he wins Wednesday's presidential election, which he is all but certain to do. It's a statement that conjures the frenzied dysfunction of Nigeria, the brutal despotism of Zimbabwe, the power-madness of Kenyan politicians, and the genocidal civil wars that strike Rwanda and Sudan's Darfur.