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Nelson Mandela is officially "improving," though still in critical condition at a South African hospital. His long battle with a lung infection has South Africans anxiously contemplating their "post-Mandela" future in a still racially divided country. In a unique strategy, one man is hoping to help heal those divisions with a pair of barbecue tongs.

Jan Scannell is a 32-year-old former accountant with a dream: To establish a national holiday in South Africa like July 4th called Braai Day.

"There's not that one day a year [in South Africa] where everybody has a proper celebration — the same type of celebration — with friends and family," he says.

Braai is a South African barbecue of meat or vegetables over wood embers, never charcoal or gas. Back in the years when Scannell was still climbing the corporate ladder, he used to braai on the weekends, inviting friends over for the classic South African picnic. But then he had a revelation at age 25 after accepting a coveted post in his firm's office in Manhattan, when the prospect of leaving his friends, his country, and his grill, filled him with panic.

"I decided I actually don't like looking at a computer all day — I want to do something that contributes to society," he says. "And, to my mind, the biggest thing that South Africa needs is [that] we need to be united as a nation."

South Africa already has an independence day. But it's a sober day of reflection on the end of apartheid — more "never again" than "pass the ketchup." So Scannell quit his job and launched his unlikely campaign.