Africa Is a Country

This is Freedom: The Mandela Reality TV Show

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

This is Freedom: The Mandela Reality TV Show

By
Africa Is a Country

Nelson and Winnie Mandela's descendants fought apartheid for the right to make a reality TV show and South Africans fought for the right see it.

Image: The Cutting Edge Group.

So three of Nelson Mandela’s grandchildren will star in their own reality television show for South African television. The show will go on air in 2012. The main characters will be sisters Swati Dlamini-Manaway (34) and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway (32), and their cousin, Dorothy Adjoa Amuah (27). They had a press conference in Johannesburg to announce the show. One journalist, writing about the launch, likened the show to something resembling “… the Kennedys, with a dash of the Kardashians.” I can’t even imagine what that is.

One of the stars, Dorothy Amuah refers to herself as part of “a new middle class of intellectuals” and was quick to play down the comparisons: they’re definitely “not the African Kardasians.”

Their bios:

Dlamini-Manaway, 34, has two children (a 10-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter), and another child due in January. She works for the family business, Mandela Dlamini Associates, and wants to launch a clothing line. Dlamini, 32, is a single mother who is re-launching her career by setting up a foundation to focus on medical, education and housing issues.  Amuah, 27, has a law degree and MBA from Monaco. She works in the luxury brand market.

What are the aims of the producers?

They want to use the daily lives of the Mandela girls to showcase a new generation of working women in South Africa – while at the same time, giving a glimpse into the daily lives of this prominent, high-profile family.

Turns out one of the producers was executive producer of “Dr. 90210;” a show about plastic surgery in Beverley Hills.

Oh, and the Mandelas – and presumably the South African masses – fought for the right to do and see this reality TV show.

The show’s producer’s however, say the Mandela family feels they have “fought for the right for their children to choose their own destiny.”

Meanwhile a “source” close to the Mandela family told the usually rightwing British tabloid, The Telegraph:

The commodification of the Mandela name is rampant and many are watching [the production of the reality show] with growing alarm.

This is freedom.

Further Reading

On Safari

On our year-end publishing break, we reflect on how 2024’s contradictions reveal a fractured world grappling with inequality, digital activism, and the blurred lines between action and spectacle.

Rebuilding Algeria’s oceans

Grassroots activists and marine scientists in Algeria are building artificial reefs to restore biodiversity and sustain fishing communities, but scaling up requires more than passion—it needs institutional support and political will.

Ibaaku’s space race

Through Afro-futurist soundscapes blending tradition and innovation, Ibaaku’s new album, ‘Joola Jazz,’ reshapes Dakar’s cultural rhythm and challenges the legacy of Négritude.

An allegiance to abusers

This weekend, Chris Brown will perform two sold-out concerts in South Africa. His relationship to the country reveals the twisted dynamic between a black American artist with a track record of violence and a country happy to receive him.

Shell’s exit scam

Shell’s so-called divestment from Nigeria’s Niger Delta is a calculated move to evade accountability, leaving behind both environmental and economic devastation.

Africa’s sibling rivalry

Nigeria and South Africa have a fraught relationship marked by xenophobia, economic competition, and cultural exchange. The Nigerian Scam are joined by Khanya Mtshali to discuss the dynamics shaping these tensions on the AIAC podcast.

The price of power

Ghana’s election has brought another handover between the country’s two main parties. Yet behind the scenes lies a flawed system where wealth can buy political office.

Beats of defiance

From the streets of Khartoum to exile abroad, Sudanese hip-hop artists have turned music into a powerful tool for protest, resilience, and the preservation of collective memory.