Georgia Gwinnett College Welcomes Prince Cedza Dlamini

held its inaugural International Week, ”Global Perspectives Address” on Thursday evening in the Cisco Auditorium. This address and presentation was given by Prince Cedza Dlamini of Swaziland in Southern Africa. Since 2001 Prince Dlamini has traveled throughout the United States speaking about global forgiveness, compassion and the use of dialogue, instead of violence, as a powerful tool for conflict resolution. Dlamini is the grandson of former South Africa President, Nelson Mandela.

“This is a great honor for us here at GGC, because one of our priorities is internationalization. We hope to start up our international student exchange program in August. And the internationalization of campus is an institutional priority for the next five years,” said Dr. Daniel J. Kaufman, President of Georgia Gwinnett College. “We are honored and delighted to have Prince Cedza here to help us in that regard.”   

Prince Dlamini is the founder of the Ubuntu Institute for Young Social Entrepreneurs. The Ubuntu Institute’s mission is to educate and train young African leaders with professional skills they will need to achieve the United Nations established Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in their communities. This UN eight point strategy aims to eradicate poverty, hunger and disease in Africa and globally, was set forth in 2000.  

The word Ubuntu means interconnected. The goal of Prince Dlamini’s institution is to foster and build global networks of young, innovative and skilled leaders to work together to address, and if possible, resolve current world problems.

“Prince Dlamini is doing exactly what GGC is doing; which is to inspire young leaders to become educated and engaged. GGC is inspiring and educating the next generation of leaders for our communities and our nation. This is a world that is so interconnected, in which distance really doesn’t matter. What matter is commitment, engagement and preparation for leadership,” said Dr. Kaufman.

The Prince serves on the Global Action Youth Network in New York City and in October of 2003 he was appointed co-chair for the World Youth Peace Summit in Africa. Since June of 2004 he has served as youth activist and spokesperson for the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

“The epitome of leadership should be good values. I arrived in America to attend Tufts University in Boston shortly before 9/11. At that time there were two images of America, a country going to war and the other image that I got to see and experience that of being a very generous country. This is the most generous nation on the earth,” said Prince Dlamini.

Dlamini said that the best way to build relationships among people from different countries is for people to go to different countries and to interact face-to-face. He said these types of interaction, working and serving together, will allow all that are involved to recognize and realize that each country and person have good values. Having people come out of their comfort zones he said beats the best foreign policy in the world.

Citing cultural differences as the biggest impediments to in person interaction, Prince Dlamini encouraged those wishing to serve internationally to commit to global citizenship. One of the things he said he discovered while living in the U.S. was that a lot of young people don’t have passports.

He said, “In Africa we have a saying that if you don’t travel, if you don’t get out of your country, your village you think your mother is the best cook in the world.”

Global citizenship, he said is the leadership that is going to serve the world. “As young people we are inheriting a world full of problems, from terrorism, to poverty and battling HIV/Aids, therefore we must find a way to work together.”

This was the Prince's first trip to Georgia and visit to GGC campus. He said he was very impressed not only with what he saw, but more importantly with what was being done at GGC. Part of the reason for his trip, he said, is to build a strong relationship between GGC, Southern Africa and the state of Georgia.

“It is colleges like GGC that is well positioned and equipped to provide a nurturing environment that inspires and creates world leadership. Leadership that is different from what we see today; leadership that is going to require you and me, as young people, to lead very differently,” said Prince Dlamini.