Go rest in the shadow of a tree at your home. Cornfields and cattle Little has changed in Qunu, although the village has acquired a new school thanks to Mandela's appeal for funds from a petroleum company. Mandela's half-brother is living better than before, in a new brick home paid for by the president. Mandela's own retirement home in Qunu is a new, expansive, red brick structure with a floor plan that matches that of the farmhouse where Mandela was imprisoned before his release. Mandela's 47 head of cattle graze behind his new home.
Cornfields surround a family graveyard.
But Mandela also is building a home next door to South Africa, in Maputo, Mozambique, where he expects to spend time with the family of his new wife, Graca Machel, the widow of the late Mozambican President Samora Machel. In 1996, Mandela divorced his wife of more than three decades, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela , amid allegations that she was involved with another man. Clearly, from his near-Herculean performance in the final days of his presidency on trips to Russia and China and on the campaign trail across South Africa, it is Mandela himself who doesn't seem ready to go sit under a tree in Qunu. New wife and large family to support. During his presidency, he set up and raised millions for the Mandela Children's Fund, a charity for disadvantaged children.