It's not that bad, Like the sharks aren't the problem. It's just how cold it is.
Do you sometimes put your wet suit by your bed and the minute you wake up, you put it on because someone told me to do that, and then you literally have to go ah when you're already in your wet suit, Like I get up, go to the bathroom and put my wet suit on, and then it's like, oh, no a minute.
That makes a lot of sense, though, that could because you usually go to the beach and then it's like, oh, let's go look at the what there's that floor? Yeah, and a process you go through. He's definitely answer something.
Hello, I'm mini driver. I've always loved Proust's questionnaire. It was originally in nineteenth century parlor game where players would ask each other thirty five questions aimed at revealing the other player's true nature. In asking different people the same set questions, you can make observations about which truths appear to be universal. And it made me wonder, what if these questions were just the jumping off point, what greater depths would be revealed if I asked these questions as
conversation starters. So I adapted Pru's questionnaire, and I wrote my own seven questions that I personally think are pertinent to a person's story. They are when and where were you happiest? What is the quality you like least about yourself? What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you? What question would you most like answered, What person, place, or experience has shaped you the most? What would be your last meal? And can you tell me something in your
life that's grown out of a personal disaster? And I've gathered a group of really remarkable people, ones that I am honored and humbled to have had the chance to engage with. You may not hear their answers to all seven of these questions. We've whittled it down to which questions felt closest to their experience, or the most prizing, or created the most fertile ground to connect. My guest today is the film producer, social advocate and activist Quaku
Mandela Amua. Quaku is the kind of social advocate who effects change on a global level. He is a founding member and ambassador of jen Endit, a collective of HIV AIDS organizations committed to seeing the end of AIDS in our lifetime. He also sits on the board of the Amazing Global Citizen By the Way, their extraordinary concert will take place in Central Park in New York City this September,
and Charlie's Sarren's Brilliant Africa Outreach Project. It's hard to speak about Quaku without contextualizing the legacy he comes from as the grandson of Nelson Mandela. Quaku's written about his grandfather over the years, and something he wrote has stayed and resonated with me deeply, perhaps on account of the times we're living in and particularly what has been apparent
in this first half of twenty twenty five. Quaker wrote, my grandfather would always say that if we as humans don't transcend this cycle of hatred and violence that we find ourselves in so often, we will always be prisoners. Quaku carries with him this torch of peace, justice and reconciliation, which to me at the cornerstones of his grandfather's legacy.
We had such an interesting chat about the sacrifices his family made to be in politics, about music as a form of activism, and the role of art as a way of addressing major issues in society. Time and again we both return to the theme of our children and the hopes that we can and will make a better, kinder world for them. In your life, can you tell me about something that has grown out of a personal disaster.
Yeah, you know, I always wanted my son to meet my aunt because she was such a big factor in my life of really pushing me to follow my passions from a young age. Like I think she brought me my first CD and I listened to that thing for like forty eight hours straight, just on her feat, and she came out like four am in the morning.
She's like, you really love music. You should do something with music.
I was like, all right, okay, And then I ended up starting that festival around HIV and AIDS awareness and followed my passion for live music and live events. And she was seminole undoubtedly and pushing me that way. So I definitely wanted her to meet my son. But COVID started and you know, you couldn't travel. I was in New York. She had just come back to South Africa and she passed away, and I remember just how weird it was watching her funeral memorial on YouTube.
Oh my gosh.
I remember saying to myself that every day I was going to wake up and like tell my son I love him and just told him and just carry that out into the world.
And yeah, I know.
It's helped build my relationship with him, and I think it's also affected how I treat people in the world. There's lots of things I understand now that I probably didn't understand when I was younger, about what one can represent without even knowing it by coming from the legacy which we all have because we all have parents and grandparents and great grandparents who did good things and some
that did that. And so I just hope my son feels that as he grows up and he realizes that's what he eminate's.
From and that's something that he will learn from you, Like, have you in your life felt the weight of that legacy or it was just what you knew and so you incorporate it into your daily life And is that the way in which you'll pass it on to your child, do you think?
I think for a long time I was told what that was meant to be, and there was the expectation of what I was meant to be. But then you come into your own where you realize through all the things you've learned and the experiences you've had what that means to you, and that's the most important thing that you carry forward. And it's just the essence that I think is instilled in you, whether you want to call it DNA, whether you want to call it grounding or
beliefs or teachings. And so I hope again, through his experiences, which will be very different from line, that he'll find and figure out how that relates to him.
Is that part of the films that you make and the music that you're involved in is storytelling like a really important aspect of your life because you come from a big story and South Africa has a big story. I mean, I know every country does, but like we're talking about this now, do you think that's part of what you choose to do for a living? Like that is an extension of that?
It could be.
Yeah, I've never thought of it that way, but now that you've said it, I'm like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. So there's been three big things in my life. One is the idea of how you can bring people together in a music concert. When I was four and a half in Boston Park with Harrismith, not really knowing anything about that band, but knowing that they'd brought a bunch of people together really piqued my interest filmmaking.
The ideas that you could tell stories and those could move people to think differently or feel something that they didn't feel before. That was always something that struck at me. And then the idea that you can build community, which goes back to something you've talked about on this and you can do that in many different forms, but the easiest is through storytelling and getting people to realize that they have more in common than they don't exactly. So
that's always been something. I guess organizing has always been something that I've been good at.
What person, place, or experience has most altered your life?
I would say place definitely, again, coming back to Africa when I was ten, and then coming back later my life, returning and there is something unique about the people here, the warmth, the resilience that I'd seen in glimpses around the world, but just really came home, and I think to find my belief in humanity, So my fervent kind of desire to want to be able to make sure the continent is seen and treated in a respectful way.
And an equitable way. So I would say that's definitely been place for me that had an undeniable impact.
Do you have a very clear recollection as a ten year old boy of arriving back and what did you feel, Because you've been in America, right, so do you remember do you have like crystal memories of what that was like?
I remember was one day I went outside my driveway and there were these guys there standing in Zulu attire and they had spears and.
My mom screamed, she was like sorry, she grabbed. I had no concept. I was like, oh, these guys look so cool. I was like, I've never seen anyone who just look like this.
But at the time, there was this conflict going on between the Zulus and close so it was like very dangerous and I.
Just remember that moment very vividly.
Going to class with a group of kids that were very diverse and from all over the world. There were Greek, they were or Cheguese there, or British kids in my class, and you know, again meeting people that did not have a lot by any stretch of the means of what I'd grown up with before, but that were just so positive and content all of those moments really stuck with me.
Do you think there's, like you said, concentration of kindness of coming back to South Africa? What creates that in that particular place, Like when you say that people are just so lovely and kind? Do you think there is something that engenders that.
I think experience, I would imagine plays a role a country that had gone through this major shift and was trying to figure out what it was the tension of that, but also I guess the belief that you have to have that things can get better.
And then I think there's also just nature.
What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you?
I think for most of my life the kind of anecdotal idea of romance in the movie would have equated love the ability to show someone you care to be affectionate display public affection for someone else.
Those things still inspire me.
I think I'm just more pragmatic having been in relationships and come out of them in the concept of sacrifice and what that means. And again I always told myself I never wanted to do politics, largely because I know the human toll right that takes on someone and their family and their loved ones. But ultimately, when I think back on that in the context of my family, when I think about those sacrifices that not just my grandfather made, my grandmother's.
My uncle, my aunts.
It was for me in the sense the kind of true expression of love, the idea that you were doing something that it was bigger than yourself at such a scale, and doing it fearlessly even though there was so much danger and unknown and.
Risk attached to that.
And so I would say, for me, yeah, as I get older, that's something I've started to think about a lot more as a reflection of true love.
H It's funny because I think on a small or a bigger level, sacrifice it is a huge part of love. It's not the romantic part that we talk about, but it is a huge cornerstone of the things that we And maybe sacrifice is alongside compromise, the idea of what we do for those that we love that are not necessarily choices we'd make for ourselves. But you know that for a kind of greater good, we seem to be
pretty far away from that. In our world. Everything's become so protectionist now it's not about sacrificing for a greater good, but rather protecting more for our own gain slash, I guess security, But.
I think that's what the image of love has been presented to us, as something that we are meant to protect. Like you're not meant to go out of your way, You're not meant to compromise or sacrifice. You're meant to feel good, You're meant to feel happy and special, and you're.
Meant to be upbeat.
And I think the real toll of what love is is when you're willing to let something go, no matter what it is, because you know that something greater can come from that and those around you can benefit from it.
Was that part of Global Citizens That organization for me feels like a kind of embodiment of like a love that is shared and spread around and actually is foundational and has the kind of infrastructure. Was that something you were really interested in being involved with, because it really does feel like an expression of love. I mean, that's simplifying it, But was that part of that?
I don't know if it was an expression of love for me, and if it is, to be honest with you, I think I had been part of starting a concert when I was twelve, when I was really young and just idealic, and at the time I got out, I was going through like my cold Play phase where I was just listening to.
Them over and over.
I ended up calling a promoter and got lucky the right person spoke to me and four Triple six y four, which was an HIV and AIDS awareness concert, was born. And because I had that experience, and I'd also spent time in Australia, I was introduced to some of the co founders of Global Citizen and they'd asked if I wanted to be a part of it, and I took some time. About a month later, I went back to them and said, yeah, I'm open to this, but we actually have to be global. We can't just do a
concert in New York. And so it was born out of that, in this idea that we could end extreme poverty. And back in twenty twelve and twenty thirteen, we had the Millennial Development Goals that Jeffrey Sachs and a bunch of really smart people had dreamt up around how the world could look to defeat poverty, which was something that my grandfather had been really passionate about when he retired. This idea that poverty was man made and it could be ended by us in our actions. And I think
we were very idyllic. We didn't necessarily have a roadmap, and we obviously didn't know the things that would come in our world, and so.
It was born out of that.
It's definitely more we've obviously had COVID, You've had compounding conflicts in the world, and as you said, a world that's become more protectionists and.
More nationalists in a lot of ways.
And so I think the organization is kind of figuring out and finding what it represents in a modern era. What I'm proud about with Global Citizens the idea that people can mobilize behind something. Yeah, they can believe something that's bigger than themselves, and the idea, yeah, that their impact in actions can equate something really special. But the only time will tell if that's real or just smoke and mirrts.
I think there's something really beautiful though about the idea of everybody from whatever socioeconomic background, culturally, the idea that you can affect change. And there's something about Global Citizens that makes the way the information is presented, in the way engagement works, that feels like anybody can help. Beginning affecting change, like within their local community on a grassroots level or on a bigger sid like however you want
to get involved. I remember it's like when I first met Chris one hundred years ago, we would both work for Oxfam. I opened for him and Ram because Michael Stipe was also really involved. And I remember sitting in the green room with like backstage in London, all these unbelievable people and all these beautiful musicians were sitting around talking about the amelioration of poverty, like what does that look like? How does that look How can you use
this tangible platform? And remember this was before social media, and it's really like, well, here we are using this platform here to talk about things. So what we say in between songs? And I was like, I'm not saying anything because you guys are saying all the stuff, but like, how you at your own level, how do we talk to each other. I've loved I've watched in the sidelines of the expansion of Global citizens and I really love it, like it inspires loving me and like lots of other
people that I know. So I think it's very cool.
I hope it will inspire a new generation to figure out how it is that they move the needle, and that it may not necessarily be through music events, it may be through a new form of storytelling. And maybe do them realizing that they have unique communities that exist amongst themselves, and then how do they apply pressure. Because when I think about any of the kind of great what it's Woodstock, whether it's Freeman Della concert and a
lot of them have existed. Some really did have an impact, others were just moments to galvanize people and exist in that moment solely right, And I think with all of the information we have, it's hard to have a breakthrough and so global sys since then a good job of finding a model potentially works in certain parts of the world, it's not going to work everywhere. And so that's where the next generation really has to evolve.
It, I think, and figure it out. So interesting just talking about community called Jefferson was on the show the other day and he was talking about the loss of the third place, which so the first place being home, second place being work, and the third place being community and whether that was church or the village hall, or the sports matches or the places that we used to go to find that and when I was a kid.
That's where any kind of activism came out of those places where sort of people would come together in a time that wasn't home and wasn't work and would start moving things forward. And we live in a community in
California where that's very much in play. It's interesting watching my kid, he's sixteen, and how him and his friends are doing that, like, yes, in addition to all of their gaming, and they're this, and they're that, this idea of like minded souls and what can we do and how can we do this together as opposed to them
being so isolated. And I don't know if it's a function of COVID and needing to be part of something and not so isolated, but I think it's really interesting and I do think that that's where I think that's the key. And I watched these kids sort of starting to unlock that idea that it's community that is transnational.
Do you think that bards and still plays a little role in helping us, I guess address major social issues that we have.
Yes, hugely. But I think there is a huge problem in the arts being seen as some kind of dessert to the meat and potatoes of a far more prosaic academics. I don't know. I have advocated and I will never stop on the idea that creative thought for me comes
out of the art. It comes out of music and kids finding their voice, no matter whether that's what they want to do in their life, but learning to speak and to articulate how you feel text that you read, to stand up, to feel heard and seen, to experiment with music and with words, with reading. I think it's
phenomenally important. I really do. And it's interesting my kid goes to a school where they don't mind even if you are just a full blown academic scholar, you will play a musical instrument, or you will be in the choir. It's fully just this is part of your whole brain development. This is as vital as double physics. Yeah, I stand by that. Do you think that? Do you think that it's possible?
I don't know.
I think when I look back, and maybe this is just the fact that we're looking back right when you look back at Woodstock and what that'spawned, or a lot of the cultural boycott that existed during a part that it felt like it really broke through, and I think now I see a lot being done. I just don't know if it actually breaks through and it comes to the whole idea of who controls what we see, censorship, all of that that you can have a debate and
a conversation around. I think I'm still trying to figure out that's possible.
I think it's changing at such a fast pace, like with no regulations, and it's such a crazy free for all. I agree, but I think if everything is going to get thrown into that crucible anyway of the Internet of social media of this world, then I'm going to go through in as much of the arts and communication as I possibly can. Because I agree with you. I think it's wayward and it's clearly without a plan, but I still think we're better off with it than without it.
So what quality do you like least about yourself?
I would say I've always felt the need to be accessible, whether that's in real life or taking time to engage and listen to people, friends, colleagues, and that can be a lot, And I know there's plenty of moments now that I look back, I'm like, oh, I wish I could have got that time back, because I listen a lot.
I think earlier today I was on a call for an hour hearing someone's business idea, and I knew probably five minutes and I was like, I really don't want to do this conversation really, but stuck with it and I just listened and took the time. And I would say that's something I do wish that I could be a lot better because I realized how fleeting time can be.
Do you feel like a responsibility because people hold you in high regard and they come to you. Do you feel that it's impossible to create a boundary.
I feel it's hard to create a boundary.
I just think it's something that's innate in me, the kind of need or want to be there for people and to let them know that they are seen or they are heard. And I can't explain why that is, but it's just always been there.
It sounds like a very amazing quality. But it does sound like you probably don't have as much time for yourself because you do that for other people.
Yeah, it's a taxing quality, and I think it's something I didn't think about a lot before, but I've definitely started to realize, particularly prompted by that question.
It's really interesting because a lot of people would look at that and go, gosh, that's an amazing trait, But to actually have the awareness that it takes its toll being fully available all the time, like that idea of accessibility. No one's ever answered that question that way. It's really true that these things that we are told are virtues can also be really difficult for us to hold in our own lives.
Take note of Yeah, yeah, will you tell me when and when you were happiest?
You know?
I thought about that a lot before coming on. And it's crazy because there's so many ways one could answer that question in a lot of ways. I could say right now being at peace with myself where I'm at, but also at the same time realizing I'm in a world that's not at peace with itself. So I probably would have to say being with my son at the start of COVID. I think he was four and a half months old. He woke up early and I just picked him up and put him on my chest, stopped crying,
and we just laid there. I just foundered that moment, how simple it was, but how much it affected me. And I definitely have other moments professionally, being on a stage, being part of bringing together one hundred thousand people in South Africa to celebrate my grandfather's centennial. Being in nature and realizing that I can connect with something that's bigger than me, it was just something, you know. I think now that I've gotten older, I try and do more
and more. I've made a concerted effort to move out of cities, and so even though I'm speaking to you from Johannesburg, I typically spend my time in a place called the Garden Room, which is about four hours outside of Cape Town, and it's got the most amount of biodiversity in Africa. But it's also just a really majestic, magical place where the scenery changes every ten to twenty minutes. There's always a new adventure around the corner.
Wow. And is that somewhere that you go with your kids as well, or is that somewhere that you go to retreat just you?
You know, I go there with friends, have gone there with some of my family as well. We went when I was younger, and now it's mainly become a place that I go to.
Like my retreat.
It's maybe obvious to say, but it's an enormous legacy that you live with it in like the paradigm of your name and your life and how you're choosing to live within your life. When you said at the very beginning that you would say that you were happiest now, but that we are living in such a deeply unhappy
time like in our world. Do you think that you're constantly looking at the bigger picture just because that's part of how you have always lived or is it something that you consciously faster to stay connected with all of that.
Going back to the question, everything's about framing and how we frame our minds, how we frame ourselves in any given time. There was a large part of my life where I was so sheltered from everything that I barely knew that there are different continents that existed. And this was my early childhood, growing up in liberal Arts America and New England, and so the idea of understanding that
there's conflict or turmoil, all of those things evaporate. And it was only when I was ten I moved to South Africa and it was a vibrant place but also a very chaotic place that was finding itself that I really started to get a grasp of the rest of the world.
And what that meant and the impact that had.
And so yeah, I would say I'm definitely always looking at myself personally, but then also the larger scope and trying to figure it out. And I've had many a moment where I've had to challenge my own perceptions of things.
Yeah, I guess we all do. And maybe it's a good thing. Maybe that is like the sort of soulful checks and balances that we check in with. Sometimes I feel like if I'm having a bad day, it's because I have to trace it back to things that I've read, or things I've been made aware of, or things that I'm giving my time to that you just can't stay immune to what is going on around us. But it then somehow piggybacks onto the way that you're looking at your own life.
I agree with that.
So maybe it's just about awareness. What question would you most like answered?
Probably are we alone in this galaxy in the world.
There's so many questions, but that would probably be the big one, because I think it would push us as a human civilization to maybe think bigger, more considerate, and lose the.
Elements of selfishness and greed that we have.
If we thought we weren't sovereign in this galaxy.
If we actually knew there was more out there and it wasn't a debated topic, it wasn't something that was secret.
Yeah.
I feel like just since all of those videos with the flying pyramid and everything, I was like, are we seriously still debating now that the government declassified all of these We're.
Just confused at this point, right right, we don't know. It's the way.
It's been sold to us now is like it's like, oh that's yeah, that's probably believable, but I don't really care.
You know. It wasn't like this.
Thing where they're like they exist, right, and this is how they exist and this is where they come from. It was just like one of those well maybe because there's this evidence, but then there's also these people that say this, so no one really knows.
It's so human, I think, to think that we are alone, like it's so typical like man as a species, to go, yep, no, it's just us. It's like, it's highly unlikely that it's just us.
True, But would you go to your kids' school and tell him and all his classmates and as parents that you believe.
That audience success?
You know, I definitely take that video of like the US Air Force with that very shocked pilot. I'd take that video and no, no, look kids, watch this TikTok and now let's talk about aliens. And I want you to draw me a picture because what kind of alien do you think lives in a pyramid? Is like, yeah, I could see you doing that, many I'm not sure it would answer any questions. I might frighten the children. Oh, Quakie, thank you so much, Thank you so much for spending
the time. It's so good to meet you, and it's so good to talk to you. I'm very grateful. Thank you for your time. Mini Questions is hosted and written by Me Mini Driver, Executive produced by Me and Aaron Kaufman, with production support from Jennifer Bassett, Zoey Denkler, and Ali Perry. The theme music is also by Me and additional music
by Aaron. Special Banks to Jim Nikolay Addison, O'Day, Henry Driver, Lisa Castella, Anick Oppenheim, Anick Muller, and Annette Wolfe, a w kPr, Will Pearson, Nikki Ito, Morgan Levoy and mangesh at Ticketdore