nelson Mandela develoPs his interest in afriCan history

It was at Mqhekezweni that Nelson Mandela developed his interest in African history. ‘’ the most ancient of the chiefs, Zwelibhangile Joyi... regaled the gathered elders with ancient tales...of the young impis (warriors) fighting the british”. to Mandela’s puzzlement, Chief Joyi also spoke of the accomplishments of non-Xhosa warriors for whom Mandela had no interest. It was only later that he was moved by ‘’the deeds of all African heroes regardless of tribe’’.

Chief Joyi said that the African people, the thembu, the Mpondo, the Xhosa, and the Zulu lived in relative peace...’’as brothers...until the coming of the abelungu, the white people’’, who ‘’shattered the abantu, the fellowship, of the various tribes’’. ‘’Chief Joyi’s war stories and his indictment of the british’’ made Mandela ‘’feel angry and cheated, as though... already robbed of (his) own birth right.’’ but (he) did not yet know that the real history of (his) country was not to be found in standard british textbooks, which claimed that South Africa began with the landing of Jan Van Riebeeck at the Cape of good hope in 1652’’.

We, too, had made the similar discovery that the history of trinidad and tobago did not begin with the rediscovery of our islands by Christopher Columbus in 1498 but, in fact, as archaeological evidence shows, the islands had been settled as early as 5000 bCE (before Common Era).