Geerard Adriaen (Bruges, 30 May 2000) is a Belgian journalist and documentary filmmaker. In July 2025, he became headman in a kingdom of the South African amaNdebele people.
Activities Adriaen studied Journalism at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences and did an internship at VRT in Rudi Vranckx's editorial team.
Between May and June 2024, he made a documentary in Sierra Leone for the VRT CANVAS TV-show Nomaden, about the synthetic drug kush. After negotiating with local drug dealers, he gained access to several gangs, which he could film. While on location in Sierra Leone, he spent a month living in a slum in Freetown and suffered a hand injury during a machete attack. His documentary Lost in Smoke raised donations that saved 29 kush addicts. Among the donors was the Belgian Princess Pauline de Merode.
Between June and July 2025, he made the documentary Men with Glasses for Nomaden in Zimbabwe, about eye problems in people with albinism. He was assisted in this by Princess Kelelo Dlamini of Swaziland. Adriaen helped organizing the project Eyes for Zimbabwe, in which more than a thousand visually impaired people received free glasses from Eyes for the World. Due to the lack of press freedom in Zimbabwe, Adriaen filmed undercover. He pretended to be a volunteer for Eyes for the World, but was nevertheless forced to work under police supervision.
In July 2025, Princess Dlamini introduced him in South Africa to King Ndzundza Kamusi II – one of the three kings of the amaNdebele people, which has 2.1 million members. In appreciation of what Adriaens' documentaries have meant to communities in Africa, the king conferred upon him the noble title of iNduna (headman). The ceremony took place on 26 July 2025 in Stoffberg and was attended by several kings from neighbouring tribes. He was offered a polygamous marriage with two princesses, but he rejected the proposal. At the time of his appointment, Adriaen was the only European iNduna in Africa. As headman, he advises the king and can represent him abroad.
Sources, notes and/or references