EARLY LIFE

Born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1919, Mandela grew up in a tiny village of Mvezo, in Transkei, South Africa. Where Mandela spent his time as a young boy, there were no roads. Only grassy valleys and footpaths made for farming. His family lived in a hut and ate local maize, sorghum, pumpkin, and beans. His father, Gadla Henry Mphanyiswa, was the royal leader of the Thembu tribe and when he lost royal chief status in the tribe, they were forced to move. At his new home of Qunu, Mandela was baptized in a Methodist Church and became the first of his family to attend school. This is where he was given the name he would most commonly be known as, Nelson Mandela, because African children were commonly "renamed" English names in the British educational system.

When Nelson Mandela was nine years old, he was adopted by the wealthy Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo after his father's death. Again, Mandela moved, this time to live with his adoptive father in the sophisticated city of Mqhekezweni. There, he studied English, Xhosa (his native language), history and geography in school. His interest in African history developed as a result of seeing the elder chiefs who came to the Great Palace on official business. From the elder chiefs, he learned that Africa used to be a relatively peaceful land before the "white people" came; the white men broke the bonds of brotherhood and friendship. "While the black man shared his land, air, and water with the white man, the white man took all of these things for himself."

Nelson Mandela as a young man. (Wikispaces).

As it was customary for African boys to do at the age of 16, Mandela participated in the traditional circumcision ritual and elaborate ceremony that would mark the beginning of his manhood. Mandela was proud to partake in this tradition because he knew this would be the start of his true contribution to his people; however, the chief inducting the ceremony said that any promises made at this entrance of manhood would go to nothing, as long as they were under the rule of whites. His long speech, not something that made complete sense to Mandela at the time, later formulated his decision to fight for South Africa's freedom from the apartheid rule.

As an adopted royal, Mandela was able to attend a Wesleyan mission school, Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Wesleyan College. His motivation and drive for hard work and success formed at this secondary school and led him to excel in the academics, as well as track and boxing. In 1939, Mandela began studying at the University College of Fort Hare. At the time, this was the only residential center of higher learning for blacks in South Africa and its equivalent is an Ivy League university of the United States. Here he studied Roman Dutch law to prepare for a career in civil service as an interpreter or clerk, which was the best profession a black man could amount to in South Africa. He was elected onto the Student Representative Council, but student protests and boycotts regarding the school's food, ones that Mandela agreed with, led to his resignation from his position on the Council. Dr. Kerr, of University College of Fort Hare, expelled Mandela for a year for his act of "insubordination" but gave him an ultimatum: he could return if he served on the SRC again. Mandela refused to buy into their bribes and declined the offer. In the end, the school told him he had to return to school the following fall.