Christian influenCe R

The AmaMfengu had also been the first to become Christians, to build better houses, and to use scientific methods of agriculture, were richer than their Xhosa neighbours and ‘’confirmed the missionaries’ axiom, that to be Christian was to be civilized, and to be civilized was to be Christian’’. the Mfengu ‘’were the most advanced section of the community and furnished… clergymen, policemen, teachers, clerks, and interpreters’’.

Nkosi Mandela ignored local custom and became friends with two AmaMfengu brothers, george and ben Mbekela, but in spite of their promotion of the faith he ‘’remained aloof from Christianity’’. his wife, Nonqaphi Nosekeni, however, was inspired by their faith to become a Christian assuming the name, Fanny, that she had been given in church.

the influence of the Mbekela brothers led to Rolihlahla Mandela being baptized into the Methodist Church and sent to school. george Mbekela told his mother that her son was ‘’a clever young fellow..… and should go to school’’. It was a radical notion for no one else in Mandela’s family had ever been to school. She consulted his father who decided his youngest son should go to school.