But the influx wasn't welcome.

In 1953, the ruling Dutch set aside a separate area for the Zulu people—called KwaZulu—as part of the apartheid system. In 1981, KwaZulu was forced to become independent. The Zulu living in Durban and other cities were made to relocate there and to renounce their South African citizenship—and the rights that went with it. Jobs were all but nonexistent in KwaZulu, so many Zulu men filtered back to urban areas as migrant workers.

Decades of protest preceded and followed.

Though apartheid was officially abolished in 1991, the United Nations didn't drop its sanctions on South Africa until October 8, 1993—20 years ago last week—and the country didn't hold its first multiracial election until 1994. Nelson Mandela won.

In