Great Profiles

“Caller number 2, what country do you want to go to?” Call KBGA on Friday nights to request a song during The Mandela Experience and you may well hear that question. Mandela Leola van Eeden, globetrotter and junior marketing major at The University of Montana, has a passion for music. Through her extensive travels abroad, visiting more than 150 countries, Mandela has brought world culture to UM with her weekly radio program on KBGA and the didgeridoo club in which she has created.

It’s not often you hear someone from Montana say how fortunate they are to have been born in the United States. Mandela was supposed to be born in South Africa where her parents lived. By chance, Mandela’s mother, a flight attendant, happened to be in San Francisco when she went into labor, giving Mandela immediate citizenship. “I was lucky. I got citizenship easily. It took my dad 13 years to get his,” said Mandela. Soon after she was born, the family returned to South Africa where Mandela spent her far-from-ordinary childhood.

She grew up in a thatched hut in the most southern point of South Africa, the Basjan Baai nature reserve. She and her family were the only people who lived on the reserve and they had to travel 40 km to the nearest town every few months to stock up on food and supplies. With no running water or electricity, her family had to live off the land. “We ate a lot of fresh sea food,” said Mandela.

The animal life in South Africa also made for an interesting childhood. She said there were spiders the size of dinner plates, enormous snakes, and bugs that would lay eggs in her eyes. “I’ve had worms comin’ out my ass the size of snakes,” said Mandela. When she was only 6 years old, a gannet (type of large cat comparable to a puma) came into her home and jumped on her bed where she was sleeping. “It just stood there above me with its paws on my chest,” she said. Probably the funniest part of the story, she said, was the fact that her father just stood there stunned for a moment, then left the room and returned with a camera to take a picture of the large animal while it was on top of her.

With all of these wild animals around, probably the most dangerous part of her childhood was when she would go for a “walkabout” in the scrub and get lost. “One time I was lost for three days,” said Mandela, “My parents put up two huge flags with fish symbols on them so I could find home.” She said the scariest part of being lost was the nighttime. In order to stay safe from the large animals at night, she would take cover underneath a certain type of tree that had growth all the way to the ground, creating a sort of hut she could hide in.

She lived on the nature reserve until she was 9, and then she and her mother moved to Billings where she began attending public school. With a flight attendant for a mother, she has continued traveling throughout her whole life. She said she is able to travel so much because they have always flown standby and also because people don’t realize how much cheaper everything is in some other countries.

When Mandela travels, she prefers to stay in hostels. “I would rather be out of my bubble when I travel. A lot of people don’t put themselves out there, they stay surrounded by the luxuries of home,” said Mandela, “I would rather make myself as uncomfortable as possible.” However, she said you have to be careful is some countries because the term hostel can be another word for brothel. She said there have been times where she has accidentally entered brothels and had to repeat, “No, no. Not for sale.” She said, “One time when we were in Uganda, my dad got offered three cattle for me. That’s a pretty good offer.”

Every country has offered her a different cultural experience. She said she used to want to live in China, until she visited the country. She said she could never fit in there, being so tall with long blond hair and a love for brightly colored clothing. “People stare,” Mandela said. “I felt like a girl walking past construction workers. I would have to cover my hair and wear all black.”

As for other countries she has visited, such as Congo, the cultural differences are far more dramatic. Mandela said the hills in Congo made the firing of machine guns echo and sound even closer than they were.  She said she thought to herself one night while trying to sleep, “I’m sickened with myself. I’m here on vacation and 15 miles away people are getting killed.”

With all these experiences in so many different countries, it’s no wonder Mandela has such a passion for world culture. Mandela’s global traveling is what inspired her to do her weekly program on KBGA. Perhaps one of the most unique programs on the radio station, The Mandela Experience is a two-hour show every Friday night where Mandela takes her listeners all over the world through music. “When I travel, I collect music from the countries,” said Mandela. She plays everything from recorded artists to no-name instrumental recordings she bought off street vendors.

One instrument you can expect Mandela to play from time to time on her show is the didgeridoo, the wind instrument to the indigenous Australians. This instrument is particularly special to Mandela because she has created a club at UM, called the Yidaki Club, which focuses on the didgeridoo and Australian culture. She said she started the club because, “I wanted to introduce people to the music and culture of somewhere other than the United States.”

The club meets once a month and has grown to over 250 members. During meetings, members get together to play the didgeridoo, sometimes have boomerang workshops, watch movies about Australia, and generally just learn about the culture. “It’s a big deal ’cause we’re in Montana, and now you can walk across campus with a didgeridoo and people know what you’re carrying,” Mandela said.

To further spread the education, Mandela also visits local elementary schools. During these visits she helps the kids make their own didgeridoos out of PCP pipes, has them view and discuss aboriginal art, and she answers any questions the kids have on any of the countries she has visited. “I like talking with the kids because they think sort of the same way I do and their questions jump around the same way my thought process does,” said Mandela.

You can see Mandela playing her didgeridoo all over campus. She said she likes to play everywhere from in the oval to Urey Lecture Hall. She also likes to play at open mike nights around town. “I love playing into a mike,” said Mandela, “It’s orgasmic.” You can also hear her play from time to time on her radio show.

While Mandela’s show is known for offering an eclectic mix of music from all over the world on her program, it is not the only feature of her show. She also likes to do live interviews with Missoula locals who have also traveled the world. She said, “I want to get people on air talking about things other than Missoula.” She has interviewed Peace Corps volunteers, photojournalists, and random travelers. During these interviews listeners can call in and ask questions, the interviewees teach words from the language they learned on their travels, and she spotlights music from the country being discussed.

Her most recent guest was a UM grad student who spent 2 years in Samoa volunteering for the Peace Corps. Mandela feels it is important to interview Peace Corps volunteers because one of the three goals of the Peace Corps is to spread the word. On her show, volunteers get to communicate the vast differences in culture they experience while living in different countries. The man who had volunteered in Samoa said it was so different living there because the country survived off of shipping goods. So, when the means through which they ship goods were closed down, people simply starved.

The Mandela Experience is a show that is always fresh and interesting because it features people telling stories about their recent adventures. Mandela at times also tells stories of her own adventures. This spring, Mandela will probably have plenty of stories to share and new music to feature from South America. This winter break she is heading to Uruguay to visit her uncle and help with the excavation of a newly discovered dinosaur in Patagonia, Futalognkosaurus dukei.

However, while her main goal of the visit is to participate in the dig, she has a bit of an ulterior motive behind this particular trip to South America. Several years ago, while Mandela was still in high school, she had a job working as a runner in a downtown Billings bar. One evening while at work, she saw a man who she said, “was quite nice looking.” Later that evening she found out that the man had asked one of the other waitresses about her because he had noticed a unique Led Zeppelin necklace she was wearing.

After he had left, she returned to his table to clean it where she found a note that said, “Awesome Led Zeppelin waitress from Montana.” Inside the note was written, “Dear immigrant song princess,” and a message that said he was not going to be in Montana for much longer but that he would like her to give him a call. It turned out he was moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Since then, the two have remained in contact via email and the occasional phone call. They have exchanged postcards, small gifts, and music from countries they have visited. They have stayed in touch for over three and a half years now and still have never spoken to each other in person. This winter, they are finally going to meet. On her way down to Uruguay, Mandela plans to make a stop in Buenos Aires. “He’s an amazing person,” said Mandela, “I’m really excited to see him.”

This trip will be yet another for Mandela to add to her list of amazing experiences. She has many plans to use all she has learned. “My dream job is to have a show on The Travel Channel featuring world music.” She also hopes to one day own a map store where travelers can come to learn about the countries they are headed to. She says there will be a database where people can leave information on hostels, restaurants, and places to visit and avoid, providing future travelers with information. She herself will have plenty to contribute to that database.