Ā Ā The honor of visiting South Africa is one I will carry for the rest of my life. Boarding the plane in Fort Lauderdale and beginning the 16-hour flight, I anticipated a journey of culture and connection. But as we crossed the vast Atlantic Ocean, I found myself in profound reflection. I gazed out over the waters that once carried millions of African souls to unknown shores under horrific conditions, and I imagined the terror and heartbreak of that forced transatlantic journey. My ancestors were taken from a land that had everything they neededācommunity, wisdom, purposeāand cast into bondage in a foreign world. Now, generations later, I was returningāfreely, proudly, and purposefully. I was going back not as a descendant of the enslaved, but as a leader committed to partnership, progress, and possibility.