Ndileka Mandela - I Am Ndileka: More than My Surname

I am Ndileka

I am Ndileka

More than my surname

Ndileka Mandela

First published by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd in 2019

10 Orange Street

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Auckland Park 2092

South Africa

+2711 628 3200

www.jacana.co.za

Ndileka Mandela, 2019

All rights reserved.

d-PDF 978-1-4314-2968-4

ePUB 978-1-4314-2969-1

mobi file 978-4314-2970-7

Cover design by T

Layout by Alexandra Turner

Editing by Linda Da Nova

Proofreading by Lara Jacob

Set in Sabon 11/16pt

Printed by ABC Press

Job no. 003594

See a complete list of Jacana titles at www.jacana.co.za

Dedicated to my mother

In every candle lit,

The Mthembu woman rises,

In the spirit of uThembekile

And in the memory of Thokozile,

As she walks, these are the steps of a Soldier in the making

Cause in every touch there is quality in her

The constant elegance that is her,

To change humanity

Its that wisdom, the art of the Afrocentric Queen, of whom I speak,

Preach of her independence,

That is truly divine, in the life and times of Ms Ndi,

Cause in every lesson, there is a spark of her

Knowledge, which will be pasted

With that light of her spark for the next Generation to come,

Mama I SALUTE you because your work has just begun in society

Long live NDI, Long live

Tembela Mandela

Foreword

NDILEKA MANDELA, THE FIRST OF the First of the First the first child of Thembekile Mandela, the firstborn of Nelson Mandela from his first wife, Evelyn Mase Mandela. Born as the first in the next generation of the Mandela lineage, born to take the lead, Ndilekas leadership is evident in her role as a social activist and in continuing the legacy of her grandfather, Nelson Mandela, while carving out her own unique legacy.

The world watched as Ndileka became the first Mandela to publicly make a stand to hold our leaders accountable, to be a voice for the people, a moral conscience to remind our leaders and the people of our nation to lead, to live and to act in alignment with the values of her granddad and the founding mothers and fathers of our glorious nation and our democracy as enshrined in the Freedom Charter and the Constitution.

I have been fortunate to walk this journey with Sis Ndi, as I fondly call her. Our journey together began nine years ago when we met while raising support to build the Nelson Mandela Childrens Hospital one of her granddads last projects. Sis Ndi shares her granddads love for children and healthcare, coming from her medical background as an ICU nurse by profession. I would often remark that the world is in need of intensive care and would express gratitude for her tireless efforts in contributing to the spiritual, moral, mental and emotional wellbeing of society and the world at large.

During this time, serving with Sis Ndi in my role as Chief Operating Officer of the Thembekile Mandela Foundation and Director of the Leading Like Mandela leadership development programme, I have watched her develop and unleash her personal greatness as she continues to rise as a daughter of the African soil while dealing with personal difficulties and finding solutions for the common challenges that we face as Africans.

I watched with hope and pride as she established the Thembekile Mandela Foundation to honour her father and to continue the legacy of her granddad in striving to improve the quality of education and healthcare in South Africa and the continent, two pillars Nelson Mandela stated were essential to build our nation.

I have watched as she launched Pride of the Rural Girl, an initiative to recognise and restore the pride and dignity of the rural girl child; being raised as a girl child in the rural Eastern Cape, she understands their plight. I watched, after we drove at the crack of dawn to a rural village, as Sis Ndi, in jeans and a T-shirt, took a spade and shovelled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of plaster to build classrooms for a rural school. She addressed the community on the importance of playing an active role in their own development and the future of their children, played hopscotch and skipped with the schoolchildren, showered the kids with affectionate hugs and stories of her granddad and watched their smiles as she inspired them to study and to shine like the brightest stars in the galaxy.

I joined her in celebrating her success as she launched Leading Like Mandela with Ms Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, and other esteemed dignitaries to support the development of effective leadership on the continent amongst the youth and current leaders.

In this time I have also been able to observe Sis Ndi graciously fulfilling her various roles as a daughter, continuing the memory of her father; as a granddaughter, taking a sabbatical for three years to be by her granddads side during his last years; her role and efforts in securing him a fitting burial and continuing his legacy, a legacy that he sacrificed his life for; as a mother, dealing with daily responsibilities such as shopping for groceries, cooking a meal for her kids, confirming travel arrangements for her daughter at university; as a grandmother to Nabeela, singing along to Barney tunes while reviewing and keeping abreast of the latest news and political and social developments in the country and further afield; discussing and preparing for media interviews and meetings with world leaders, presidents and royalty; and as I leave, coming to greet me in the driveway and praising the gardener for the beautiful roses that are in bloom glimpses of her personal and professional life that you will discover in this book.

When I was approached by Ndileka to write this foreword to her memoir, the first thought that entered my mind was, Where does one begin? Where do I begin to share insights on the life of a truly great leader and daughter of Africa, a human of such nobility, dignity and greatness, an enigma? A daughter who has paid the huge price of a childhood in the rural Eastern Cape without a father, during the days of apartheid, and robbed of the presence of her grandfather.

Where does one begin to paint a portrait of a person, to introduce her memoir to the world, which takes the reader on a journey into her life growing up in the era of apartheid, raised by her grandmother Evelyn? A journey of personal strife and challenges as an individual and as a member of one of the worlds most renowned and respected families, and a journey towards becoming a social activist, reminding us to hold our heads high and to live with dignity as Africans, to remember the spirit of ubuntu, to continue the long walk to freedom, to honour and to liberate ourselves from the shackles of our hearts and minds just as her granddad led the struggle of our people to liberate us from the shackles of apartheid. This long-awaited memoir grants deeper insights and a greater understanding into the life of Ndileka Mandela, much more than her surname.

Liaqat Alli Azam
Director, Leading Like Mandela

Prologue

I AM NDILEKA MANDELA. FIRSTBORN child of Thembekile Madiba Mandela and first grandchild of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

For a large portion of my life, I have felt invisible to the broader public as an individual simply because I carry the last name of one of the worlds most beloved icons.

This feeling of invisibility, I believe, has been compounded by being almost cast out of the personal history of this great man, uTata, as hes affectionately known by South Africans. A single narrative prevails, one that leaves out chunks of his life, particularly his marriage to his first wife, Evelyn Nomathamsanqa Mandela, and that of my father, Thembekile.