South African Tourism Ubuntu Awards

South African Tourism’s Ubuntu Awards Dinner was held at Gotham Hall in New York City. The award was given to Artists for a New South Africa, a nonprofit association formed in 1989 by Americans, including Alfre Woodard, Danny Glover, Mary Steenburgen, Blair Underwood, CCH Pounder, Robert Guillaume and Roderick Spencer, to provide a platform for performing artists to join forces to work on behalf of South Africa. At the time of its founding, it was called Artists for a Free South Africa and focused on the struggle to free South Africa from apartheid. The event also celebrated the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, when the country chose Nelson Mandela as its leader. Sadly, the event also celebrated the life of Mandela, who had just passed a fews months before the momentous occasion.