America at 250 and South Africa at a Crossroads

As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, we are reminded that nations, like people, are never finished. They are constantly becoming. Their histories are marked by triumphs and failures, by ideals boldly proclaimed and promises imperfectly fulfilled.

Few countries understand that reality better than the United States and South Africa.

Separated by oceans, languages, and cultures, our nations nevertheless share a remarkable connection. Both have wrestled with profound questions about freedom, race, justice, opportunity, reconciliation, and the responsibilities of citizenship. Both have experienced moments when the world questioned whether they could survive their deepest divisions. Both have demonstrated that history need not imprison a people willing to imagine a better future.

Full story at IOL

By Armstrong Williams.