“It was always my childhood dream to be in the media. I like to share information – to create awareness, to shine a light where it’s dark and to have meaningful conversations that impact people’s lives positively. I want to die empty therefore I must share what I know,” these are words from Mandisi Mabaso, An author, professional DJ, entrepreneur, HR professional, a wife and mother to four beautiful children.
Born and bred on the South Coast, in a small town called Amandawe, Mandisi has always been a top achiever at school, she describes herself as fun, intelligent and industrious, “I was a top learner, popular in school, social butterfly – a teacher’s pet. Then I wanted to venture into broadcasting – was a fan of The Bold and The Beautiful and Days of Our Lives – civil engineering, architecture, property development, acting, radio and television presenting were on top of my career choices.”
Her career has proven to have taken a full 360-degree cycle where she has juggled the professional world in Human Resources for over 10 years, she has also explored the microphone through radio DJing and she recently published a book.
She explains that in high school they didn’t have drama as a subject which forced her to mix two worlds, “In matric I experienced a traumatic event which affected my academic performance. This changed my focus, following that event – I walked into the library and picked up a career book, I noticed that all bursary applications were sent to the Training and Development, I became curious about this department. I learned that it falls under human resources. A new passion was born. I ended up getting a bursary from Metropolitan Life to study human resources. Since I had always aimed for excellence – my only goal in human resources was to make an impact in the organizations and the employees I served and to do this I knew I had to be a Manager – I practiced Human Resources for 16 years – 7 years as a Human Resources Manager. I was then satisfied that I had been able to change my life after my disappointment at Matric. I felt that I had been hiding ‘all of me’ and I did not want to hide my fullness.”
Writing a book has always been something Mandisi wanted to do growing up as an avid reader, “when I was young, I read feverishly. I was often transported by the author and dreamt of myself doing the same for other people. I love listening to stories and telling them.”
Her book, The Adventurous Nun – Stories my family told me is a comprehensive biography of Sister Mildred Lungile Madlala, a Franciscan Missionary of Mary (FMM), born on Mistake Farm, KwaZulu-Natal south coast, South Africa. As a sister, a nun, a Franciscan Missionary of Mary, she dedicated her whole life to God until the end. She wanted to tell her story to inspire, teach and motivate others. This book is written for anyone in the world, including people who do not belong to the Roman Catholic Church.
As a FMM, Sister Mildred worked and met people in many different countries including South Africa, Congo, Kenya, Mauritius, France, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Italy, Switzerland, England and Madagascar. She was a teacher by profession, and an interpreter as she was fluent in English, French and Swahili, and could converse in Italian, with isiZulu being her mother tongue. This biography is thus available in French, Swahili, and, importantly, in isiZulu, because she believed in communicating to people in their mother tongue.
Sister Mildred attended school at St Francis College Mariannhill with the late liberation struggle icon Steve Biko. In later life she wholeheartedly followed her calling as a nun which she first felt when she was just eight years old. Over the years she met and engaged with Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Otunga, and slept in the home of Mary of the Passion. Her adventurous journey with Jesus was not without danger, though; she was followed by a lion in Kenya, and survived the civil war in Zaire before finally succumbing to Covid-19 in Madagascar.
It’s a stirring story of a woman’s passion for Jesus, but most of all for her passion to serve His people to the very best of her ability. Sister Mildred did this with alacrity until the very end.
This is not the first and last book from Mandisi, she says, “most definitely – I will be writing more biographies focusing on topics that have helped me to heal as well as children’s books since we have a reading crisis in South Africa.”