What is Nelson Mandela's native language?

Yesterday, I heard Nelson Mandela deliver his speech after the innauguration of the statue in London in his honour, and he didn’t sound like an English native speaker to me.

Is he?

(And if not, what is his first language?
While at this, since I’ve heard his wife is from Mozambique, what language does he speak with her?)

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  1. As he is from the Xhosa tribe of the Tranksai, his first language is Xhosa. Like most South Africans he probably also speaks English and Yaapikaans, and probably another 3 or 4 Bantu languages.
    What a great statesman too. It’s a shame some of our leaders aren’t locked up for years before becoming "leaders". Ours just seem to want to feather their nests as much as possible in the 4 years they are in office (a second term means even more riches potential before being invited onto some board or another for even more riches) Alledgedly!!

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