To many of us, the late #NelsonMandela was an activist, a fighter, and a champion. But to his grandson, #NdabaMandela, he was all of that and more. Nbada took a trip down memory lane with the students of Hempstead High School in Long Island, NY, and encouraged them to keep on fighting the good fight.
Ndaba, now a 36-year-old activist, co-founded ‘Africa Rising’, a non-profit foundation in his hometown of Johannesburg. The organization works to improve Africa’s image worldwide. He also works to rid the continent of HIV/AIDS, which has not only harmed Africa, but took the lives of his mother and father.
According to Newsday, Ndaba spoke about his grandfather in an auditorium packed with more than 500 students, recalling Nelson Mandela’s strict nature and the wisdom he instilled in him.
“My grandfather was very strict,” Mandela said. “If he saw my room was upside down, he would make me go clean my room.”
He even spoke about the lengths Mandela went to teach him the importance of responsibility when he lost his school jerseys on two separate occasions.
“You will eat and go straight to your room,” Ndaba recalled his grandfather telling him. “I never lost another jersey, let me tell you.”
Ndaba talked about his grandfather’s legacy and how that has inspired him to not only become and activist, but teach and inspire others to talk about the injustices that occur in the United States.
“That is why we keep seeing young kids killed by the police and nothing happens; there is no justices,” he said. “Ladies and gentleman, we have to talk about the travesties of this country.”
Leaving the students with one last thought, Ndaba expressed the importance of the power of dreams, and encouraged them to invest everything they have into the choices that they make in life.
“If your dreams don’t scare you, you are not dreaming big enough.”
