The grandchildren of former South African President Nelson Mandela will be the focus of a new reality show set to air starting in early 2012
“This is about three women breaking away from the Mandela legacy to find their own feet,” said director Graeme Swanepoel.
The 3 women — Dorothy Adjoa Amuah, Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway and her younger sister Swati Dlamini — are Mandela’s granddaughters. They were reared and raised in the United States before returning to their native land for family and business.
The parents and grandparents of the women are not part of the show, which will focus on the three of them and their immediate families and business concerns.
The show’s theme is the burden of a famous name. Producers said the show was about three young black women making their own way in the world. It will look at their lives as career women and mothers.
Dlamini-Manaway, 34, and Dlamini, 32, grew up in the U.S. but recently returned to South Africa.
Dlamini-Manaway has two children, and is expecting a third. She is a member of the family business, Mandela Dlamini Associates and has plans to start her own fashion company. Her sister plans a charity foundation.
Amuah, 27, is involved in marketing luxury brands.
Producer Rick Leed said part of the reality show might be fiction and part of it fact.
“This may be part storytelling, part reality, except the story we are telling is real. … It’s not going to detract from the dignity of Nelson Mandela.”
