Nelson Mandela's grandson Nkosi Mandela visits Brooklyn school
NEW YORK - High School kids in Bedford Stuyvesant got a historic visit from the grandson of Nelson Mandela on Friday, in an effort to strengthen relationships between New York City and South Africa.
The hallways of the Nelson Mandela School for Social Justice were packed with dozens of students who lined up to hear Nkosi "Mandla" Mandela speak about how the lessons learned from fighting apartheid can still resonate today, even on the other side of the world.
"If they wake up in Brooklyn and find themselves living in a Black-only spacial development, they should be able to break that because all we want to see is one human race," Mandela told CBS2's Hannah Kliger.
Students greeted him with performances of dance and poetry, taking turns asking questions.
Sophomore Joel Ryan asked whether he will use his chance visiting New York City to try to help his community back in South Africa.
"We could both learn from each other," Ryan said.
Ahjana Haynes, a junior, said she learned a lot about his life.
"The story he told about him meeting his grandfather, that was cool," she said.
Mandela spoke of his commitment to building a school in South Africa and his plans to speak with Mayor Eric Adams about growing educational opportunities at that school.
He is expected to stay in New York for a week, but says the visit would not be complete without a stop to the school named after his grandfather, a school which Nelson Mandela himself visited back in 1990.
"It's your right to be educated and to take education not as something that we take for granted, but something that allows us to fulfill our goals and our purpose," says school principal Matthew Anderson.
Students say they were inspired by both him and his grandfather.
"One message I got from this is that it's not white against Black, it's everyone against racism," says junior Jadel Hove.
"When I heard he was going to come I didn't really believe it," said sophomore Taj Mailey.
Mandela hopes to foster closer relationships between schools around the globe, especially those that bear his grandfather's name.
"My grandfather considered education to be a weapon one can utilize to change the world," Mandela told the students.
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