In the summer of 1992, Africa had become our playground. Basketball nets were made from cardboard boxes, tennis rackets were used as hockey sticks and our lemonade stand had one guest (thanks mom). Thanks to our father, visits to Africa would become a regular thing, due to his research on the HIV/AIDS pandemic and him founding the Salama SHIELD Foundation. Every time we came and visited, it was li
ke coming home. The ‘MBUNTU’ philosophy was a word widely used in the social programming of our father’s foundation, but also in neighbouring South Africa where at the time Nelson Mandela was being released from prison near the end of the apartheid. ‘MBUNTU’ as a philosophy essentially means, “I am a product of my community”, or “I am because we are.” For many, ‘MBUNTU’ stood for ‘hope.’ For us, ‘MBUNTU’ represented the awareness that we are part of a global community— that we were all in this together. Realizing how lucky we were (and still are), it is a philosophy we have carried with us since the day we landed in Harare, Zimbabwe. It’s learning to collaborate with those half a world away. It’s going beyond one’s domestic network to collaborate, partner, invest and innovate. It is why we consider MBUNTU a lifestyle brand, because being MINDFULLY MBUNTU is a way of life.
