The Mandela cousins
Kweku and Ndaba's activism has elevated the lives of Africans
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Bloemfontein, South Africa, did not used to be the cultural center it is today. Many businesses had moved outside the city and it was not a desirable place to live. Then, 10 years ago, a man named Adam Levy bought 10 blocks of the city and started developing them one by one. The city became full of art institutes, cafes, galleries and clothing stores, and will now also become home to the new offices of the Africa Rising Foundation, a group launched by cousins Kweku Mandela-Amuah and Ndaba Mandela, the grandsons of Nelson Mandela.
The Africa Rising Foundation, which Mandela and Mandela-Amuah started in 2009, strives to clarify misunderstandings about their homeland and its people. The Mandela cousins were the keynote speakers for this year's 'Deis Impact, the University's third annual festival of social justice, sponsored by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life and the Student Union.
Mandela grew up with his grandfather, Nelson Mandela, who he says was a huge inspiration to him as a child, and continues to be today. Mandela studied at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, where he received a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations. He was the senior political consultant at the Japanese Embassy in Pretoria before founding Africa Rising.
Mandela-Amuah grew up in Amherst, Mass., Hartford, Conn. and the East Village in New York, before moving back to South Africa in 1993 and attending the Academy of Photogenic Arts International Film School in Sydney, Australia. "Growing up as a young kid, I went through different incarnations of what I wanted to be, from Batman to Superman to a fireman, but I think early on, I landed on film," he said.
"I watched a lot of films, I learned about them, and I was inspired by them," Mandela-Amuah said. Today, he owns one of the largest film and TV production companies in Africa, called Out of Africa Entertainment, a company he started in 2003. Like Africa Rising, it also focuses on the idea that people need to learn about the real Africa, so he helps create films he "feel[s] audiences in the world need to see," he said.
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In 2009, after a few years of feeling the need for such a group, Mandela and Mandela-Amuah began to work on the foundation. They conceived of the idea as they had traveled all over the world and encountered questions they did not expect, ranging from whether they had lions in their backyards, to whether they played football.
Mandela and Mandela-Amuah wanted to continue to address the misconceptions about Africa by starting the foundation. "We knew it wasn't going to change overnight, we knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we felt it was something we needed to start vocalizing, something we needed to start projecting, to the world," Mandela-Amuah said.
"We were well aware that a lot of people didn't have enough information about our continent, didn't really know what was going on, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that the media doesn't show those things," Mandela-Amuah said.
After their travels, the duo decided that they needed to help promote transparency and knowledge about life in South Africa. "Enough was enough. Something had to be done," Mandela said.
To begin the process of creating the foundation, they initiated a conversation with about 20 of their friends, but soon found that many more people wanted to be involved. 200 people attended the first meeting. "That was kind of reinforcement to what we had been talking about and now established," Mandela-Amuah said.
Starting the foundation was not without its challenges and obstacles. It lost two of its members in 2012, at which point they "lost quite a bit of momentum ... [and] fell into a bit of a slump," Mandela said.
Mandela and Mandela-Amuah have both recognized the teamwork that it takes to create and sustain an organization such as Africa Rising. "This was about young Africans and we need young Africans to make it successful. And we've been very lucky to meet passionate, young Africans who have volunteered their time to make this what we all want to see it become," Mandela-Amuah said.
One of the projects that Mandela is especially passionate about is a resource center, which provides academic support to youth in South Africa. One of the center's first projects was bringing in a professional who could help students with study skills and assist teachers in managing their classes, but due to the cost, they were not able to continue these workshops.
This year, they have two new programs in the resource center, which they hope will allow youth in rural areas to be able to learn computer literacy skills. "We feel in building a generation of the 21st century in terms of new African leaders is being really proficient and efficient in computers. ... Some of them finish high school without even having any computer classes at all," Mandela said.
Other programs they are working on include incorporating general interests into their programs, including agricultural development and business programs, which the youth have suggested. "The youth are interested in dancing, they're interested in fashion, music, so what we will do is really just facilitate getting the professionals and the mentors who can contribute to the rural communities ... and really be mentors for the kids," Mandela said.
Mandela-Amuah, meanwhile, is heading a campaign entitled African Dream. "One of our key pillars is to tell African stories because it's always been Africa, the sad, dark, poor continent, and with this campaign, what we really want to do is talk about what kind of Africa we want to see," Mandela said. "We know the American Dream ... but what is it that Africans want to see two three generations from now?" The final product of the campaign will be an experimental short film about Africa in 2015.
Through their foundation, the Mandelas will continue to reach out to "people of African origin, people who wonder about the African continent and those who want to contribute to the positive development of the continent ... would like to see ourselves as ambassadors, as a bridge for people here in America," Mandela said. "They can contact us, get information about how they can make an impact on the ground and expand our network with people in academia, with critical thinkers and people who would be able to also criticize us and make us better."
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