“If I can be remembered as a person who added value towards creating more unity and solidarity amongst people of African origin, I would have achieved my goal.” — Ndaba Mandela
His booming laughter and warm spirit enter the room well in advance of the physical man. Immediately, once in sight and presence, it is his grace that captives and makes one wonder if this is what an audience with his grandfather, NELSON MANDELA, could have been like.
This week’s Friday Drop of ICON MANN’s IN CONVERSATION WITH… is Ndaba Mandela, Chairman of Africa Rising Foundation.
For the majority of Black Americans here in the US, we are a people of a rich yet enslaved history in search of our continental and tribal African identity to inform the cultural embers of excellence that burns deeply within allowing us to rise again and again -no matter the adversity. So when I hear Ndaba state so casually, “I chill in the village with my people… catching up with my roots. I don’t speak English, I’m speaking Xhosa the whole time. And then I sit with the elders…” there is a great longing and appreciation for such a known history and modernity.
Modernity mixed with a heavy dose of historical context is Ndaba Mandela. His name alone proceeds him with an enormous weight of duty and expectation, yet it is his personal drive and vision for self that validates.
Go to the ICON MANN website www.iconmann.com to read the full interview, and be sure to follow us on Instagram @icon.mann
source:
Tamara Houston
Icon Mann
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