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
was an active member of the Chris-
tian student association, teaching
Bible classes in the outskirts of
town. To have an idea of the edu-
cation provided there and the kind
of minds present there, a number of
other freedom activists make up the
university’s list of alumni, including
Oliver Tambo, Robert Mugabe, Se-
retse Khama, Dennis Brutus, Govan
Mheki and Robert Sobukwe.
At the end of his days, Mandela
expressed his gratitude toward the
European missionaries. “Our gene-
ration was produced by Christian
schools, by missionary schools…
when the government took no inte-
rest whatsoever in our education. It
was the missionary that piloted black
education… so Christianity really is
in our blood.”
Two remarkable figures of the
anti-apartheid fight, Nelson Mande-
la and Oliver Tambo became great
friends at that school, which shows
how Christian schools and colleges
contributed to the development of
free, revolutionary thinking, in a
period of South-African history in
which many black Africans fought
to obtain a decent education.
Nevertheless, his life would chan-
ge in a radical and abrupt way, as
the regent determined, in a declining
stage of his life, that Mandela was
to marry a woman for which he
felt nothing. A man of a strong and
developed mentality, he chose not
to submit to his tutor’s command,
leaving college and fleeing to Johan-
nesburg, thus forfeiting the future
destined to him, yet preserving his
independence.
Although he lived protect with
the regent’s family and obtained
an exemplar academic education,
he never stopped considering the
importance his mother had in his
life, and felt deeply grateful for the
role she had in the formation of his
religious identity.
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