Ras Hein has been recognised on the Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans List for 2025 in the Category of Civil Society.
Ras Hein a 33-year-old from George, in the Western Cape has been recognised on the Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans list for 2025 in the category of Civil Society.
The “200 Young South Africans” awards, presented by the Mail & Guardian, is an annual recognition event celebrating the achievements of young South Africans across various fields. These awards highlight the contributions of individuals under the age of 35 who are making significant impacts in their respective domains, showcasing the potential and talent within the country.The selection process involves nominations from the public,
Ras Hein has a 10-year track record and recognisable experience, a purveyor of revolutionary radical praxis on the local and global grassroots. Born into a working-class home, rising up from humble beginnings, he completed his schooling at George High School in 2009. He has been an adherent of the RasTafari faith since the early 2000s. He pursued a university education at UWC in 2010 where he was member of the RasTafari student structure – HIM Society, He was a student leader contributing to progressive campus politics, campus was a space which initiated him into radical grassroots advocacy and community development praxis.
In 2015 he completed a course in African Political Economy at Thabo Mbeki Leadership Institute – UNISA. He has completed various NGO training and development courses: Activate Change Drivers, YALI, Digify, Africa Unite and NYRI among other opportunities he has strived to access and complete. He has assisted with the initiation of various creative and intellectual projects: Africa Day Festival, Decolonisation week and the Ashley Kriel Memorial Cypher. With the guidance of the RasTafari community and elders he played a pivotal role in establishing the Adwa Movement in 2016 – Adwa Movement had its 10th annual parade this year – he has evolved into the project researcher, Public Relations and Community Engagement Officer of Adwa Movement where he serves his nationwide and worldwide RasTafari community.
Ras Hein is currently an unregistered BA International Relations final year student at UNISA, he plans to complete the degree by end of 2026. In 2026 he will assist in a national roll-out of Battle of Adwa celebrations in other major cities besides Cape Town. As a competent functionary and consultant skilled in community development, cultural work and creative practice he aspires to serve in any role where he can make high impact in the lives of the people experiencing all kinds of deprivation, due to threefold cause of structural violence, namely – inequality, poverty and unemployment -, in order to practically usher in a new humanity.
He is firmly guided by a statement made by the spiritual head of the RasTafari faith, Emperor Haile Selassie: “We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community..”.
Connect with him via his social media channels: https://linktr.ee/Ras_Hein