ClarkeBury Boarding institute

Soon after his rite of passage to manhood, Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo arranged for Dalibunga Mandela to attend Clarkebury boarding Institute and gave him his “first pair of boots, a sign of manhood”. Clarkebury was, at the time, “the highest institution of learning for Africans in thembuland”. It was a thembu college that had been built on land given to the Methodist church by an ancestor of Dalibunga Mandela’s, King Ngunbengcuka.

the regent explained to Mandela that the governor of the school, Rev. C. harris, was “unique: a white thembu” and was to be treated with “the same respect and obedience” that Mandela gave the regent. When Dalibunga was introduced to Rev. harris it was “the first time (he) had ever shaken hands with a white man”. this is noteworthy. A man will remain a symbol: aloof, untouchable, seemingly superior, as long as he is unfamiliar to other men. the simplicity of a handshake is loaded with complexity and significance; it implies that, however fleeting the contact, there is a conjoining of two individuals who are agreeing to meet on terms of equality and goodwill.

At Clarkebury, Dalibunga learned another “important lesson”. he was “no longer unique... there were many other boys of “distinguished lineage” and he realised he had to “make his way” on the basis of his “ability” and not “his heritage”. Mathona, a young woman he met in class, became his “first true female friend” and the “model for all (his) subsequent friendships with women” with whom he could share “weaknesses and fears that (he) would never reveal to another man”.