Malaika had a crush on Walford, who goes by Wally, since she was 15. "I've loved his spirit since I was younger," says Malaika. At the time, she knew him only as her brother's college roommate. But during her second year of college, on a family visit to Tanzania, she sent him a postcard. Wally initially thanked her brother for the note. After he realized who it was from, he decided to hold on to it. They began dating in 2003, when both were out of school and in New York. In 2007, the couple visited Tanzania together. Malaika and Wally, whose family is from the Caribbean, bonded over their cultures and upbringings. "He just felt like our families were so similar, it just fit," Malaika says. In October of that year, Wally proposed on the beach in the Dominican Republic, where the two had traveled for a friend's destination wedding...

Malaika Makembe and Walford Lindo