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Time Line 1918-1941
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Born July 18 in Umtata, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
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_1918 |
Father died; Mandela joined household of Thembu king
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_1927 |
Left the Transkei for life in Johannesburg
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_1941 |
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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
was born in 1918 in Mvezo, a tiny village on the Mbashe River, in the district of Umtata, provincial capital of the Transkei. Mandela's given name Rolihlahla, in his native Xhosa language, literally means "pulling the branch of a tree," but its colloquial meaning is "troublemaker." He was given the English name Nelson by his first teacher, as was customary for African children in the mission schools. Mandela was born in a royal family, but he was not in the line for royal succession, as modern myth has suggested. The first child of the third wife of the village chief, he was groomed – as was his father, Chief Henry – to counsel the tribal rulers.
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The Transkei, home of the Thembu people of the Xhosa nation for centuries, was at this time a part of the Union of South Africa in the British Commonwealth. And though he was a Thembu chief by birth, Mandela's father, as the village leader, had to account to a representative of the British government as well as to the Thembu king. Early in Mandela's life, Chief Henry was deposed by the local magistrate for "insubordination" over a tribal matter and lost his position and fortune. The family moved north to the village of Qunu, where his mother had relatives.
"My father possessed a proud rebelliousness," recalled Mandela in his memoirs, "a stubborn sense of fairness that I see in myself." Chief Henry was a custodian of Xhosa history as well. Tales of the nation's heroes filled the consciousness of his children, along with the legends and moral fables told by their mother.
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In Qunu, there were a few Christians, who dressed in Western-style clothing and not in the blankets of dyed ochre most the villagers wore. Influenced by the faith of two brothers from a rival tribe who had been befriended by Chief Henry, Mandela's mother was baptized in the Wesleyan Church with her son. While Christianity didn't rub off on Chief Henry – who also functioned as an unofficial tribal priest – he was influenced by these brothers to educate their "clever" son. Mandela was seven years old and the first in his family to go to a formal school.
Nelson's father died when he was nine, and Paramount Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo became the boy's guardian. He left the days of freedom playing with the other boys and working as a herd-boy on the veld and moved from his family's grass hut to live in a large, gracious home in the provisional capital of Thembuland. At the Great Place, Mandela would train in the councils of the elders and be educated with the chief's own sons.
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At the royal court,
Nelson and the regent's son Justice ran errands and served the elders, who met to do the tribe's business. "My later notions of leadership were profoundly influenced by observing the regent and his court," said Mandela. All were free to come and to speak. "It was democracy in its purest form."
When he was 16, Nelson went with other youths to be circumcised in an elaborate ritual preparing them for manhood. At the end of several days, they were addressed by the king's brother Chief Meligqili, who remarked how fine it was that they were continuing an ancient tradition. Then his tone changed. "There sit our sons, young, healthy, and handsome, the flower of the Xhosa tribe, the pride of our nation," he began. "We have just circumcised them in a ritual that promises them manhood, but I am here to tell you that is an empty, illusory promise… . The abilities, the intelligence the promise of these young men will be squandered in their attempt to eke out a living doing the simplest most mindless chores for the white man. These gifts today are naught, for we cannot give them the greatest gift of all, which is freedom and independence."
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Unlike most others who participated in the circumcision ritual, Mandela's destiny was not to work in the gold mines. To be the counselor to the next king, he needed an education and the regent sent him across the river to Clarkebury Boarding Institute. For the first time he had teachers who were themselves properly educated. In 1937, at age 19, he joined the regent's son Justice at Healdtown, a privileged Wesleyan College, where he met blacks from other tribal nations. These schools, however, presented the educated Englishman as the model for African students. Nelson would be told that no matter how titled or advanced, a black would always be the subordinate of a white in South Africa.
After Healdtown, Nelson was accepted at the University College of Fort Hare, a premier learning center in Alice that attracted black students from countries throughout Southern, Central and Eastern Africa. Fort Hare offered a coveted bachelor's degree and his success pleased the king.
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Mandela's first experience with politics, his election to the Student Representative Council at Fort Hare, caused him difficulties that again changed the direction of his life. His stand on the legitimacy of the student elections – which were held during student strike and poorly attended – put him in a dispute with the principal, who left him with the choice to serve in the council or leave the school. During the summer break, while Nelson was dealing with his dilemma, he and Justice were approached by the regent with plans for arranged marriages that would take place immediately.
The young men plotted secretly to escape the decree, which they considered ill-conceived and unfair. In the regent's absence, they took one shared suitcase and left Thembuland for Johannesburg. When they were discovered and summoned home, Nelson did not return.
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