The South Africa Community

Over 1,300 African men initiated in the Cradle of Humankind

Evidence suggests that all human life began in Africa, so whether you are reading this at your desk in Sioux City, Iowa or on your laptop at Heathrow Airport, you can trace your roots back to this beautiful continent (although some of you might have to go back about 150,000 years). In fact, our Johannesburg training site is close to the Cradle of Humankind where fossils of some of the earliest known human remains on Earth have been found. Every human being on the planet shares an African heritage. We are one diverse species spread out across the globe with our roots in Africa.

Situated at the birthplace of humanity, in the world’s poorest continent, and in one of the most materially unequal countries in the world, the Mankind Project of South Africa is dedicated to challenge and empower men to their most mature and connected masculinity. We live and work in a society deeply divided and with a history of massive racial division and discrimination (along with the gender, class and other divisions common worldwide), yet some of our land’s deepest wisdom says Muntu umuntu ngabantu (A person is a person through other people). It is in this context that the powerful healing work of the Mankind Project helps us embrace our common humanity and difference amongst people. Our vision is to let creativity and good relationship emerge from the mixing of an extraordinary human melting pot!

The South African MKP community began in 1998 when a handful of men from Cape Town were given some funding from US new warriors to attend a New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA) in England. They formed an Integration Group on returning and managed to put on a “Head, Heart and Soul” training in 1999. In 2000, another group of men journeyed to Sioux City, Iowa for initiation. This group of pioneers ran South Africa’s first NWTA in early September of 2001 with help from US and UK leaders Snake Bloomstrand, James McLeary, Jason Stover and Simon Finch.

In the past decade, South Africa has hosted 35 NWTAs, almost as many “Head, Heart and Soul”, “Crossing the Threshold”, and “Multi-cultural and Diversity” trainings, as well as staff, leader and other trainings. We have developed local leadership to the level where we are able to hold New Warrior Training Adventure weekends staffed entirely by South African men - including the certified leadership.

We have two established communities (in Cape Town and Johannesburg) that run regular new warrior trainings, have their own community council organisations, and contribute to our outreach to new communities across the land, including men who join our work from the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

We have been repeatedly blessed by inspirational foreign leaders who have visited South Africa to share their experience. In our early, financially wobbly years, some of these leaders donated their fees back to the community and used air miles to get here. We continue to share wisdom and experience worldwide through reciprocal staff and leadership exchanges with the eight regions of MKPI around the globe.

We come to the end of the first decade of South African New Warrior Training as a strong, sustainable, honest, and accountable organisation. It has been an outstanding year for this community, and we are growing from strength to strength.