Mandela’s childhood home declared a heritage site

EIGHT years ago, Nelson Mandela gave his then-34-year-old grandson Nkosi Zanomthetho Mtirara permission to have the Mqhekezweni Great Place, where the icon grew up, turned into a national heritage site.

Last Friday, the SA Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) finally fulfilled Mtirara’s dream which Mandela approved in 2010.

An excited Mtirara said that he had fought hard to have the place, where the people who made Mandela the icon he became, officially declared a national heritage site.

“Attention is given to his birthplace Mvezo and Qunu ( where Mandela’s mother moved after his father was stripped of his chieftaincy), but nothing cannot happen as far as I am concerned (now that Mqhekezweni has been declared a national heritage site),” explained Mtirara.

Mandela moved to Mqhekezweni as a 9-year-old in 1927 to live at the Mqhekezweni Great Place, where the AbaThembu Great Place had later moved to from Bumbane following the death of King Jongilizwe in 1928. Mtirara’s great-grandfather King Jongintaba Dalindyebo became regent until his death in 1942.

Explaining its decision to recognise Mqhekezweni, Sahra said Mandela’s stay in the village outside Mthatha in the Eastern Cape offers insight into the democracy of traditional systems.

“It is a place where the values of active democracy and participatory citizenship were practised and exhibited, greatly impressing young Nelson Mandela and profoundly influencing his notions and style of leadership as a prominent leader in the liberation Struggle and South Jongintaba offered to be his guardian after the death of his father, Gadla Mphakanyiswa.

Madiba wrote that the regent had not forgotten that “it was due to my father’s intervention that he had become acting AbaThembu king”.

It is a place where the values of

democracy... were practised

Africa’s first democratically elected president,” the agency explained.

In his biography Long Walk To Freedom, Mandela wrote that Jongintaba became his guardian and benefactor for the next decade.

According to

Mandela,

“He would treat me as he treated his other children, and I would have the same advantages as they,” he explained.

Mtirara said Mqhekezweni could even go on and gain world heritage recognition as a number of important national and international events took place in the village during Jongintaba’s reign.

He hosted dignitaries visiting AbaThembu at the Mqhekezweni Great Place.

Mandela learnt a lot during his stay in the village and as he illustrated: “I was completely absorbed in my new world”.

Mtirara said he would to use Mqhekezweni’s newly found national heritage site status to improve the lives of the seven villages and four administrative areas – Msana, Gxalibomvu, Nqwathi and Rhune – and provide muchneeded services such as water and agricultural production.

The chief also plans to build a multi-purpose sports centre with eight pitches, a running track and swimming pool to train children as young as 4 in all sporting codes.