Taking it to the motherland, later this year, Beyoncé and Jay-Z will be headlining a special edition of the Global Citizen Festival in honor of Nelson Mandela in South Africa, the Associated Press reports.


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Slated as Mandela 100, the festival arrives on Dec. 2, five months after the iconic South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and the country’s former president 100th birthday, July 18. The Global Citizen Festival is a campaign set out for young girls and women all over the globe with six specific goals: “ending poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, and life below water.” There is a goal to gather $1 billion to go towards their efforts, with $500 billion of it going towards bettering the lives of 20 million women all over the world.

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The festival by nature will honor the legacy of Mandela, as it reaches to accomplish a deed that aligned with his once embraced might for effective change.  The former president of South Africa’s grandson Kweku Mandela, dropped a piece of his late grandfather’s wisdom to describe the movement over at Global Citizen, “My grandfather installed in me the need to use your voice and actions to champion the struggles of your community. He believed that poverty is man-made and could be eradicated by our actions. I am proud to be a part of a movement that reflects this and use citizen power to drive real change.”

Also joining Bey and Jay will be Pharrell Williams, Usher, Ed Sheeran, along with West African megastars Wizkid, Cassper Nyowest, Tiwa Savage, and the son of Afrobeat music legend Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti.

Oprah will also be an active participant as she will deliver the keynote address of the legacy of Mandela with Naomi Campbell, Tyler Perry and Forest Whitaker as fellow hosts.

Not only is it quite dope to see celebrities gather around to help end global poverty, but the audible and cultural joy in seeing a fusion of Black American and African acts, the best out of both worlds, rocking the same stage in one night? Mandela 100 is bound to be iconic.