Mandla Mandela’s face lights up with joy as he describes his second encounter with his grandfather, global icon Nelson Mandela.
The struggle hero, realising his grandson’s ignorance of politics as a 13-year-old, asked anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Joseph to teach him “English” – code for politics.
“It was out of that I came to learn about who Madiba was, having visited him in prison and when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer at Tygerberg hospital. His experiences went to somewhat shaping my own understanding what this democracy ought to have become,” he said.
He first met Mandela when his parents smuggled him in a bag to Robben Island prison when he was two months old but he is quick to admit he has no recollection of this meeting.
In 1986 Mandla went to live with Swaziland’s royal family. At the age of 13 he made his first overseas trip to the UK to deliver a speech on Mandela’s behalf.
As a nine-year-old boy growing up in Soweto, where he lived with his father Makgatho Lewanika, Mandla said taking part in political rallies always excited him. “I would hear young people shout out ‘Amandla!’ and I would be like ‘oh I’m a popular kid, you know.’”
But more profound was when they would say “Viva Mandela, Viva Mandela,” he recalled. “I would run home to tell my father, who would be in stitches thinking what an idiot of a child I was.“But he understood I had no knowledge of who my grandfather was,” he said.
It was Makgatho who facilitated Mandla’s first meeting with Winnie, Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife, who later flew with him to Pollsmoor prison where he met Mandela in 1983. He said he left the facility confused as to why a man who was his grandfather would “shame” his family by getting himself locked up in jail.
While sitting in the prison’s waiting room, they heard footsteps and then questions from an “inquiring” man. He was asking ‘How are you warden? How have you been? How is your family?’ As I was still wondering who might that be, a giant leapt into the room and Mam’Winnie jumped to her feet and they were hugging very emotionally,” he said.
“The more he spoke the more bitter I became. For me as a nine-year-old, a prison was a place for people who had done wrong in society. It became the longest 45 minutes of my life. I came out of that place very confused, very bitter,” he said.
Through the Mvezo Development Trust and funding from the departments of environmental affairs and tourism, the lives of people who live in seven villages under Mvezo chieftaincy have been improved through a paved 10km stretch of road linking them to the N2, Jojo tanks have been donated to about 530 households, about 500ha of food gardens, toilets and the R100-million Nelson Mandela School of Technology built by cell phone giant Siemens.
A primary school to be named after Mandla’s father, Makgatho, is under construction. The school will cost R3-million and was built through the China-based Chung Foundation.
“He always regarded education as the weapon that one can utilise to change the world. During his tenure as president he built over 600 schools and clinics,” Mandla said. — loyisom@dispatch.co.za
Mandla recalls island rage
The struggle hero, realising his grandson’s ignorance of politics as a 13-year-old, asked anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Joseph to teach him “English” – code for politics.
“It was out of that I came to learn about who Madiba was, having visited him in prison and when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer at Tygerberg hospital. His experiences went to somewhat shaping my own understanding what this democracy ought to have become,” he said.
He first met Mandela when his parents smuggled him in a bag to Robben Island prison when he was two months old but he is quick to admit he has no recollection of this meeting.
In 1986 Mandla went to live with Swaziland’s royal family. At the age of 13 he made his first overseas trip to the UK to deliver a speech on Mandela’s behalf.
As a nine-year-old boy growing up in Soweto, where he lived with his father Makgatho Lewanika, Mandla said taking part in political rallies always excited him. “I would hear young people shout out ‘Amandla!’ and I would be like ‘oh I’m a popular kid, you know.’”
But more profound was when they would say “Viva Mandela, Viva Mandela,” he recalled. “I would run home to tell my father, who would be in stitches thinking what an idiot of a child I was.“But he understood I had no knowledge of who my grandfather was,” he said.
It was Makgatho who facilitated Mandla’s first meeting with Winnie, Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife, who later flew with him to Pollsmoor prison where he met Mandela in 1983. He said he left the facility confused as to why a man who was his grandfather would “shame” his family by getting himself locked up in jail.
While sitting in the prison’s waiting room, they heard footsteps and then questions from an “inquiring” man. He was asking ‘How are you warden? How have you been? How is your family?’ As I was still wondering who might that be, a giant leapt into the room and Mam’Winnie jumped to her feet and they were hugging very emotionally,” he said.
“The more he spoke the more bitter I became. For me as a nine-year-old, a prison was a place for people who had done wrong in society. It became the longest 45 minutes of my life. I came out of that place very confused, very bitter,” he said.
Through the Mvezo Development Trust and funding from the departments of environmental affairs and tourism, the lives of people who live in seven villages under Mvezo chieftaincy have been improved through a paved 10km stretch of road linking them to the N2, Jojo tanks have been donated to about 530 households, about 500ha of food gardens, toilets and the R100-million Nelson Mandela School of Technology built by cell phone giant Siemens.
A primary school to be named after Mandla’s father, Makgatho, is under construction. The school will cost R3-million and was built through the China-based Chung Foundation.
“He always regarded education as the weapon that one can utilise to change the world. During his tenure as president he built over 600 schools and clinics,” Mandla said. — loyisom@dispatch.co.za
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos