Mandela later stated that his early life was dominated by traditional Xhosa custom and taboo.
[14] He grew up with two sisters in his mother's
kraal in the village of
Qunu, where he tended herds as a cattle-boy and spent much time outside with other boys.
[15] Both his parents were illiterate, but his mother, being a devout Christian, sent him to a local
Methodist school when he was about seven. Baptised a Methodist, Mandela was given the English forename of "Nelson" by his teacher.
[16] When Mandela was about nine, his father came to stay at Qunu, where he died of an undiagnosed ailment that Mandela believed to be lung disease.
[17] Feeling "cut adrift", he later said that he inherited his father's "
proud rebelliousness" and "stubborn sense of fairness".
[18]
Mandela's mother took him to the "Great Place" palace at Mqhekezweni, where he was entrusted to the guardianship of the Thembu
regent, Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo. Although he did not see his mother again for many years,
Mandela felt that Jongintaba and his wife Noengland treated him as their own child, raising him alongside their son, Justice, and daughter, Nomafu.
[19] As Mandela attended church services every Sunday with his guardians, Christianity became a significant part of his life.
[20] He attended a Methodist mission school located next to the palace, where he studied English, Xhosa, history and geography
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