S. Africans Tour Black Life in L.A. : Communities: Marike de Klerk, wife of nation’s former leader, and her entourage visit school that aims to interest African Americans in science.

A few years ago it could not have happened: The wife of the head of an apartheid African nation could not have toured black Los Angeles without massive protest.

But today, Marike de Klerk’s husband, F.W. de Klerk, is no longer president of South Africa. His title is executive deputy president in Nelson Mandela’s new government. And so it was in a serene environment Friday that Marike de Klerk took a scenic tour of African American communities while her husband met with civic leaders in other parts of town.

State Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) hosted Marike de Klerk and three other South African women on a trip through Baldwin Hills and around the rest of Watson’s 28th Senate District.

The tour, sponsored by the World Affairs Council, began with an early morning visit to the African American Male Achievers Network’s Science and Discovery Learning Center, created to teach black youths about science.

De Klerk chatted with children such as 11-year-old Justin Walker, who pointed out how his project, a red rocket, worked. She also invited the program’s first graduate, Ben Osborne, 16, to come to South Africa.

“It’s good to know that we can have an effect on people across the street as well as those across the ocean,” Osborne said. “We are seldom used to seeing people outside of our cultures.”

Hal and Bettye Walker, founders of the achievers project, explained how they keep the center going. De Klerk commented on the strength of the program. “It’s a privilege for these children to share in such a vast and important program at a young age,” she said.

It was under the leadership of De Klerk’s husband--the last white president of South Africa--that the nation began to dismantle the shackles of apartheid, paving the way for the 1990 release from prison of Mandela, head of the once-banned African National Congress. The sharing of the Nobel Peace Prize by Mandela and F.W. de Klerk in 1993, and Mandela’s election as president this year, set the stage politically for visits such as the one Friday.

The group also took a tour of Watson Terrace in Hyde Park, a low-income housing complex built with a mixture of public and private funds coordinated by Watson. Inside the complex, De Klerk met with residents Leola Singleton and Pearl Adams. Both women, glowing with pride over De Klerk’s visit, showed the curious officials their spotless apartment. Singleton said the trip was productive for both sides.

South Africans “need to know something like this exists, especially for poor people,” Singleton said.

Actress and community activist Marla Gibbs was on hand to greet De Klerk and Watson at the apartments. She said that South Africa, in search of more ways to house its poverty-stricken citizens, can learn lessons in subsidized housing from Los Angeles.

Watson said the tour gave the diplomats an opportunity to see a glimpse of African American life in Los Angeles from the high points, such as one of America’s most affluent black communities in View Park, to one of the flash points of the 1992 riots, Florence and Normandie avenues.