Who is Makeda Nandi?
Makeda Nandi is a high school student in Durban who carries the living memory of two queens: Makeda of Sheba, queen of light and wisdom, and Nandi, mother of flame and courage. She is not their descendant. She is both of them reborn as one. When someone asks who she is, she smiles: “Makeda… but the rain calls me Nandi.”
The rain that called her
She was born during a rain that fell from a clear sky. Her grandmother said that when rain falls from sunlight, a spirit is returning. As a child she drew deserts, thrones and palaces she had never seen. One afternoon, walking home in the drizzle, she saw her reflection in a puddle wearing a crown, and the wind whispered: remember yourself.
Her look
An ordinary school uniform, braided hair and a pink bag she never leaves behind. Inside it is a small golden medallion with the Sheban star and the Zulu flame intertwined. When her power stirs, one eye shines gold and the other amber.
African history behind her
Makeda is the name Ethiopian tradition gives the Queen of Sheba. Nandi was the mother of Shaka, king of the Zulu. Makeda Nandi joins the north and the south of Africa in one young girl.
Words of Makeda Nandi
“Rain does not fall. It returns.”
“Makeda thinks. Nandi feels. Together, we remember.”
“The child who remembers her mothers will never be lost again.”
