Its AMANDLA not A MANDALA!
The Global Citizen Festival recently took place in Johannesburg bringing hundreds of international celebrities from around the world to our shores… all who could not say AMANDLA but boy did they try.
Amandla in the Nguni languages means “power”.
Amandla is a word that was a popular rallying cry in the days of resistance against apartheid, used by the African National Congress and its allies. The leader of a group would call out “Amandla!” and the crowd would respond with “Awethu” or “Ngawethu!” (meaningto us), completing the South African version of the rallying cry “power to the people!”.
The word is still associated with struggles against oppression to this day.
But a Mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the universe and apparently the celebs sounded like they were calling out just that.
Faraó – a South African living in New York – tweets about the celebs using the word incorrectly got picked up by local twitter and immediately went viral, leaving everyone in hysterics!
“A MANDELA?? What’s that?” – Tsholofelo
“Yoh that was so rough… why are they adding in an extra letter?” – Pixie_Bomb
“This is almost as bad white people trying to say Umhlanga.” – OllypopZA
“I am finished” – GinaJeanz
“I’m unable to can #Amandala” – Zinhle Tshabala
Watch the video below (turn up the volume):
Non-South Africans saying the word “Amandla” at the #GlobaCitizenFestival 😭😭😭😭😭 #Amandala pic.twitter.com/92soZjOpNk
— Faraó (@DJAQNYC) December 4, 2018
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