A standing O for Mam’Oh

There’s a reason Oprah Winfrey feels at home in Mzansi and it’s not because of her alleged Zulu heritage.

Oprah delivered the keynote address at the Is’thunzi Sabafazi (dignity of women) event hosted at the UJ Soweto campus by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, The Graça Machel Foundation and the Kuhluka Foundation.

The earliest traces of Oprah’s connection to South Africa can be traced back to 2002 when she embarked on a trip to do some philanthropic work over the Christmas period. After hearing about her plans, Nelson Mandela and Graça invited her to their home in Qunu for the duration of her stay.

She described Madiba as her favourite mentor, namely because he was a man who could have sought revenge but he sought reconciliation.

“I got 10 days and nights and 29 meals with Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel. And every night, I’d sit at dinner, he would wait at the table and I’d sit at his right-hand side and he would talk about life and his years in prison and his experiences… I wanted to take note, I wanted to sit at dinner with a notepad, but I didn’t…” exclaimed Oprah.

“Madiba and I were just sitting in the living room, we were chit-chatting, as we do, and he handed me the paper and there was a story about a young boy,” she continued.

The boy in the story had lost his family and wasn’t going to be able to carry on with his studies and that sparked a conversation between Madiba and Oprah about solutions to such problems.

“I said to Mandela that one day I will build a school and it will be a school for girls because I believe that women will save South Africa. We love the men but we believe the women are the ones to do it,” she said.

According to Oprah, Madiba called the then minister of education to his home “because Oprah wants to build a school.”

After a few years of planning, the Oprah Winfrey Academy for girls was born in 2007.

“The experience of watching these daughters of South Africa find their voice and find their grace has made me think long and hard about the universe that our young leaders are graduating into today,” she said.

She has since returned to South Africa 36 times (including today) and currently has 191 girls in college, both locally and internationally.

In memory of Madiba, whom she considers a close friend, she called on everyone to ask how they can serve in any capacity.

“How can I be used for something greater than myself,” asked Oprah.

Following her address, she was whisked out of the venue, escorted by mam’Graça, while the day’s host Redi Thlabi introduced the next discussion on the agenda.

In keeping with the focus of the event, which is to create a caring society that prioritizes women and young people and create conditions for a dignified life, Thlabi introduced Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka and Josina Machel, daughter of Graça and Samora Machel and Madiba’s step-daughter.

Machel is a fierce advocate for survivor-based approaches to cases of rape and gender-based violence. She launched her Kuhluka Foundation after her own experience of domestic violence and the harrowing circumstances she faced thereafter.

“The goal is to engender a community that is caring. To create a community, that, when we hear a woman screaming, we get up an go do something,” said Josina.

Mlambo-Ngcuka spoke about her work as executive director of UN Women and all the work they are doing to undo laws that favour men to the detriment of women across the world.

She also called on men to do better as they lie at the root of solving problems of gender-based violence (GBV).

“If men made the choice to never hit a woman, then ‘case closed’,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Graça briefly returned to pay tribute to her late husband in the wake of the celebrations of his centenary. She called on those who were present and watching at home to identify, record and honor those who have succumbed to GBV as a way of creating a reminder for society to want to do better moving forward.

Watch the full event below: