Born a Crime

from movies. We never even
dreamed we would ever get one in
South Africa; McDonald’s seemed
to us like one of those American
things that is exclusively American
and can’t go anywhere else. Even
before we ever tasted McDonald’s,
we knew we’d love it, and we did. At
one point South Africa was opening
more McDonald’s than any other
country in the world. With Mandela
came freedom—and with freedom
came McDonald’s. A McDonald’s
had opened up just two blocks from
our house not long after we moved
to Highlands North, but my mom
would never pay for us to eat there.