Sculptures and Tiny Sweaters for Nelson Mandela Day
Today is Nelson Mandela Day. July 18th was Nelson Mandela's birthday (he died in 2013 and would have been 101 today), and while it's not an official holiday, it's a day when South Africans [...]
Pop-Up Travel: The Nelson Mandela Capture Site
Earlier this week, I saw a photo of the Nelson Mandela Capture Site on my friend Meruschka's Instagram feed. Meruschka's post reminded me that I visited the Nelson Mandela Capture Site nearly a year [...]
Mandela Sets the World on Fire
Yesterday evening I arrived in Bloemfontein, a small city in South Africa's Free State Province, with a bunch of other bloggers and photographers. It was overcast and the city felt dreary. We checked into our [...]
Remembering Mandela in 2014
Nelson Mandela died one year ago today. I hadn't planned to post anything about this anniversary. But suddenly in the middle of this afternoon, Mandela crept into my head. I remembered how I was [...]
Mandela on Film
A couple of weeks ago I was in Pretoria at the Union Buildings -- South Africa's equivalent of the American White House -- and saw the new Nelson Mandela statue for the first time. [...]
Mourning, Honoring, Celebrating Madiba
Nelson Mandela was buried yesterday (Sunday), and South Africa’s official period of mourning came to an end. After listening to the funeral on the radio Sunday morning, I thought I was finished mourning too. [...]
Cycling Though Soweto on Mandela’s Weekend
I’ve been invited to be a Gauteng Tourism Authority ambassador. I don’t think I’ve ever been an ambassador for anything before so this is pretty cool. It basically means that I get to do [...]
Mandela. And Me.
As the entire world knows, Nelson Mandela died last night. “Tata” is the Xhosa word for father. Nelson Mandela is often referred to as “Tata Mandela” or “Madiba”, which was his nickname. Mandela’s imminent death [...]
Remembering Rivonia on Madiba’s Day
“…no one can blame brave just men for seeking justice by the use of violent methods; nor could they be blamed if they tried to create an organised force in order to ultimately establish [...]
Mystery Monument Revealed: Shadow Boxer!
A while back I told you about a mystery monument, covered in a black tarp, in front of Chancellor House in downtown Jozi. The mystery monument in February, just after it was erected. I [...]
Alex: Joburg’s Other Township
I recently visited Alexandra Township for the first time since moving to Joburg, to attend a kids' baseball tournament. At the end of my post about the tournament, I said I was looking forward [...]
I Fell in Love With a Squatter Camp
UPDATE (March 2017): I wrote this post six years ago, at a time when I was pretty clueless about life in South Africa and how to write about it. I regret the title of [...]