B I B L I O N - A C H R I S T I A N B OO K M AG A Z I N E
Bishop Don Dabula, his friend and
confidant.
Despite growing in a family
faithful to the tribal tradition, his
development blends with Christian
values. Under his father’s guidance,
he was baptized in the Methodist
church, later being educated by Bri-
tish missionaries, even going on to
credit Methodist institutions as ideal
to mold the kind of independent
minds that led the anti-apartheid
fight.
After his father’s passing, little
Rolihlahla was handed to the tribal
chief, Jongintaba, who lived in the
capital of the Thembuland province,
who had offered to be his education’s
guardian, something that Gadla,
Mandela’s father, could not refuse.
This was a great opportunity of
assuring a promising future toward
young Mandela, studying and
growing in a Christian environment
while maintaining an education wi-
thin Thembu traditions, supervised
by one of the tribe’s greatest leaders.
Now living in the palace, the
Great Place, Mandela had a tutor
who assumed his responsibility in
full, establishing a plan that would
assure the attaining of his maximum
potential, which would lead to the
rank of royal advisor, and which
would keep him from spending his
life in South African gold mines.
There was no better place for this,
nor was there someone more capable
than Jongintaba, who knew much of
the two pillars upon which Mande-
la’s education was founded – culture
and religion. His function demanded
exceptional qualities, incorporating
the traditional values of the Thembu
while retaining, as a Methodist, the
principles of Christian faith.
The family was faithful to the
ancestral custom, since the presence
of missionary William Shaw at the
beginning of the 19th century, to
be present at the Sunday service,
which led Mandela to a new habit
and a new authority: the power of
Christianity as transmitted by Rev.
Matyolo, leader of the local Metho-
dist congregation.
In 1934, at the age of sixteen, Ro-
lihlahla took part on the traditional
Xhosa ritual of circumcision, which
represented the boys’ transition into
adulthood, something fundamental
to one who is to be respected amongst
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