May 16, 2015
Kweku Mandela was 4 years old when he first met his grandfather, the South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela. After his family left South Africa to live in exile in America, Kweku Mandela grew up largely on the East Coast, returning to his homeland only after his grandfather was released from prison - after 27 years - in February 1990. Kweku Mandela saw the one-time revolutionary become his country's first black president in 1994 and was with him before his Dec. 5, 2013, passing. Now president of one of South Africa's largest film and TV production companies, Out of Africa Entertainment, Mandela, 30, was in Chicago recently to speak to a "We Day Illinois" youth gathering and spoke with Chicago Sun-Times reporter Maudlyne Ihejirika. An edited transcript follows.
