Anele Tembe and the Importance of Mental Health Awareness

They say we’re a sad generation with happy pictures. The tragic death of rapper AKA’s fiancé last Sunday proves this to be true.

22-year-old Anele “Nelli” Tembe fell from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel while the couple were visiting Cape Town.

The incident is being treated as a suicide after a previous attempt in December of 2020, where Tembe attempted to jump off of the Hilton Hotel in Durban but was coaxed down by police.

Though Tembe’s own Instagram was private, AKA’s account often depicted the happy couple smiling and living what seemed to be a perfect life.

This just goes to show that social media is not reflective of reality.

We scroll through hundreds of people posting their best moments online, specifically curated to show off only the times when they’re at their happiest when in truth everybody has their demons to fight behind the scenes.

If we constantly compare our lives to a showreel of other people’s highlights, we are bound to feel as though we don’t measure up because our lives don’t look like theirs.

Now more than ever it is so important to speak up about mental health and wellbeing.

Not only does this support us ourselves, but it helps others to feel less alone and works to destigmatize mental health issues that have long been the subject of judgment.

Calls to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group’s helpline have increased to 1400 calls per day since lockdown, and there is an average of 23 suicides and 460 attempts per day in South Africa alone.

Hard times don’t discriminate. No matter your gender, race, age, or bank balance, we all have internal battles at one time or another, and that that’s more than okay!

We’re only human after all, and we need to practice compassion towards ourselves and others – you never know what somebody might be going through, no matter what their Instagram looks like.