But now Mandla is fighting a rearguard battle to hold on to the chieftaincy, as rival family members try to oust him while Mr Mandela, 94, is critically ill in hospital.
"The Nigerians will eat everything we have," says a former official at the Ghanaian ministry of chieftaincy and culture.Nollywood's moguls make no attempt to deny their influence over the continent they just regard it as a thoroughly good thing.
Around the turn of the 1820s, the Jere chieftaincy was involved in raiding associated with the slave trade at Delagoa Bay and at Inhambane.
At the request of his grandfather, Mandla quit a Johannesburg IT company to take up the Mvezo chieftaincy in 2007.
But if one must, say, attend a wedding, a funeral or take a chieftaincy title, it is necessary to hire prearranged police protection from the moment you land at the airport until the moment you depart.
The Urhobo have honored him with two chieftaincy titles.
Mandla's chieftaincy represents continuity, in one sense, for the Mandela family.
He may also have been embittered by his failure to win the chieftaincy of the Kidal Tuareg tribal confederacy.
Ojukwu had several honours and titles bestowed upon him during his life, including the honorary chieftaincy title Ikemba of Nnewi.
