Nelson Mandela Madiba was born on July 18, 1918, in Transkei, South Africa. Mandela's father had four wives and Mandela's mother, Nosekeni Fanny, was the third. His father died when he was nine years old after which a high-ranking chief educated him for to become a Civil Servant.
The early family life and childhood of Nelson Mandela helped shape his personality and the views that would later play out in his life. Mandela’s actual birthplace was the small South African rural village of Mvezo in the district of Qunu. Despite the fact that the house in which he was born is no longer existing, this beautiful village still exists today, not very distant from the town of Umtata (Mthatha) in the region known as the Transkei (literally meaning across the Kei River). The Mandela homestead had a direct view of the Mbashe (Bashee) River.
This is the mainland of the Thembu people, an important section of the Xhosa nation. Here is where Rolihlahla Madiba Dalibhunga Mandela, later known in the world over as Nelson Mandela, was born.
In the surrounding pastoral environment, Mandela learned and cherished from his family and clan about his people’s culture and traditions. Later, he would attend the English language lessons in European-style schools, but as a child, he fully absorbed Xhosa culture, initiation customs, ideas of leadership, and language and the act of humanness or Ubuntu (translated as a feeling of fellowship and compassion in African society).
Mandela’s initially given name, Rolihlahla, is literary translated directly as troublemaker. His clan name, Madiba, “which also mean 'to reconcile' would remain a “praise name” and an affectionate word used by friends and compatriots in years to come.
Featuring prominently in most African cultures is the idea of extended family structures, where children of aunts and uncles considered as brothers and sisters, not just cousins. Mandela’s extended family was no exception.
His sister Mabel Notancu Ntimakhwe back in the 1980s and 1990s, recalled Rolihlahla as a bold and serious young boy even then, with strong leadership qualities, and who was known to be bright. Leabie, another younger sister, recollects that at the time his sisters called him Buti.”
Mandela was committed to respecting the Elders of the Xhosa community as was required in the African culture. By extension, this meant that he had to be committed to the greater social well-being and deference. This is reflected later in Mandela's adult life despite his high social status as a member of the Xhosa society.
Mandela’s father, Henry Gadla Mphakanyiswa (1880-1927) was chief councilor to the paramount king of the Thembu people. Xhosa aristocracy comprised of three “Houses”; the Right Hand House, a Great House from which authorities are traced, and a minor or Left Hand House.Mandela was maternally born into the Right Hand House and therefore closely part of the royal family of Xhosa, although his descent-line was not that of the ruler.
Besides, he was only the youngest of four sons. However, Henry, as chief advisor to the king, took part in decision making, especially in a 1924 dispute over royal succession that was to have a significant bearing on Nelson Mandela’s life. Henry was headman of Mvezo village, who chaired community meetings and local ceremonies. He also served on the advisory council (Bhunga) which was overseen by the white government. As a result of this social significance, Rolihlahla’s father was a custodian of Thembu and Xhosa history, and he told his sons many stirring narratives of African history. Mandela also inherited his father’s tall and proud bearing.
His mother, Nonqaphi Nosekeni Fanny, was the third of his father’s four wives.
Given that it was a tradition deeply rooted in the Xhosa community, their men would take more than one wife in depending on their prosperity; a fact also indicated by the number of cattle in one's possession because cattle was considered the most important form of wealth, used for bride wealth, or payment of dowry, upon marriage.
Nosekeni had an important definitive influence on her son. Mandela later pointed that his mother was his “first real friend.” She narrated to him Xhosa moral tales and great legends. After converting to be a Christian and taking the name “Fanny,” she took it upon herself to that her son was baptized at the Methodist (Wesleyan) Church.Mandela had three sisters, Notancu (Mabel), Baliwe and Makhutswana. Moreover, his father also had 3 sons and 6 daughters by other wives. As a young boy, Mandela merrily played with them traditional games and sports, such as stick-fighting, riding animals, and making toys.
In 1920, when Mandela had just turned two years old, stroke tragedy; the government deprived his father duties of a headman for alleged insubordination over the trivial matter of a local dispute among villagers about a stray ox. His father saw the argument as singularly one in his jurisdiction; one that can be settled by traditional powers allotted to chiefs.Therefore, he obstinately refused to acknowledge the white power in this sphere. In this regard, Gadla was following the Thembu Paramount Chief, Dalindyebo (1865-1923), who had been intervening in local resource conflicts to challenge white authority.
Mandela agreed with his father's decision of “asserting” his traditional prerogative as a chief and portraying rebellious pride and a stubborn sense of injustice—which according to Mandela, he inherited. That’s because of his defiance, Mandela family lost larger tract of its land and livestock and had to shift to another village, Qunu, for the support of kin.
It's worth noting that since most Africans had lost their land and their political power to the white settlers, Mandela’s village was forced into migrant labor in the gold mines, hundreds of miles away. The government banned the right to practice many of their cultural and traditional customs. Mandela amidst all these injustices developed attitudes and behavioral ideas that helped him challenge the colonial government in later days. Though his father lost income and land, Rolihlahla remembers his time in Qunu as the happiest years of his boyhood life.
At the age of seven in Qunu village, Mandela was promoted by his Christian mother, and family friend George Mbekela, to go to school. He became the first member of his family to go to school. He was enrolled in a single room mission school where Ms. Mdingane, his elementary school teacher, gave him a British name, Nelson.
Mandela had to wear his father’s clothes, cut down to size, apparently other children laughed at his “scarecrow” appearance. Mandela was zealous to get an education. His education was one in which British institutions and ideas were regarded as superior.