Mandela's fame draws tourists to an otherwise unremarkable village
| Qunu, South Africa
鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
The village of Qunu wouldn鈥檛 normally spring to mind when choosing a holiday destination in South Africa.
Located south of Mthatha in the country鈥檚 poorest province of the Eastern Cape, it鈥檚 an unremarkable place except for one exceptional resident 鈥� Nelson Mandela.
The former president, who grew up in the village and still has a house there, is helping to fuel a mini tourist boom among visitors keen to learn more about him and the place where he lived as a child.
Nokuzola Tetani, marketing director of the Nelson Mandela Museum, says 10,000 tourists visited the village last year, of which a third were foreigners, mostly from Britain, Germany, and the United States.
Next to the museum are self-catering apartments and chalets that can sleep 75 people.
The former president was born in nearby Mvezo but later moved to Qunu, where he spends considerable time.
鈥淲e offer a hike through the village, following his footprints to all sites of historical significance,鈥� says Ms. Tetani. 鈥淲e walk on vast, open lands to the 100-year-old stone church where he was christened; the Mandela family graveyard where Mandela鈥檚 parents and children are buried; the ruins of the primary school where he was named Nelson on his first day of school; and open spaces where he knocked birds from the sky with a sling whilst looking after his father鈥檚 cattle.鈥�
