In 2009, I had the honor to invite Nompumelelo Ntuli Zuma, one of the First Ladies of South Africa, to Howard University.  During her visit she gave a presentation to the Howard University community, and it was my distinct privilege to introduce her.  We would meet again in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 2012 during the opening of the African National Congress Centenary celebration.  Here she is standing next to former Howard University President Sydney Ribeau.

During my Foreign Service Internship in Lesotho in the summer of 2000, I traveled by car from Maseru to Port Elizabeth, South Africa where I interviewed Govan Mbeki about his relationship with Max Yergan, a missionary for the Colored Work Department of the Young Men's Christian Association.  Mbeki revealed in that interview that it was Yergan's political ideas that had in part contributed to his decision to become a communist.  Mbeki was a leader of the African National Congress and a president of the South African Communist Party.  He is the father of the second democratically elected president of South Africa - Thabo Mbeki. He transitioned in 2001.