UnApologetically Mel

Culture isn’t something you find on a checklist. From South Africa to Europe, this is what travel taught me about belonging and human connection.

From endless notifications and rising death tolls to isolation in London and a heartfelt letter to a frontline worker — a personal reflection on living through the Covid-19 pandemic.

A tribute to Nelson Mandela — honouring the extraordinary strength it took to forgive, reconcile and lead South Africa forward after decades of injustice.

They called it marketing. We called it memory. Because in South Africa, you don’t get to label Black hair “abnormal” and dismiss it as a copywriting mistake. Some mistakes are careless. Others reopen wounds. This one did both.

In a world that expected conformity, I chose languages over tradition, independence over expectation and rewrote my own script.