Burial ends 95 glorious years with Nelson Mandela

Locals dance as former South African President Nelson Mandela’s coffin is taken to the family gravesite for burial at his ancestral village of Qunu, Sunday. [PHOTOS: REUTERS]

By AGENCIES AND ALLY JAMAH

SOUTH AFRICA: Global icon and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela received a heroic send-off during a State funeral at his ancestral home in Qunu, Eastern Cape town, South Africa.

The Nobel Peace Laureate, who was held in apartheid prisons for 27 years before emerging to preach forgiveness and reconciliation, was honoured with a mixture of military pomp and the traditional rites of his Xhosa abaThembu clan.

His widow, Graca Machel, and President Jacob Zuma were present for the private, traditional Xhosa ceremony Sunday at Mandela’s ancestral home in Qunu.

Mandela’s flag-draped casket was carried by the military, accompanied by family and friends, from a specially-erected marquee up a hill to the graveside.

South African television showed Mandela’s casket at the family gravesite, but the live broadcasting was stopped at the request of his family as it was lowered into the grave.

As his coffin was lowered into the wreath-ringed grave, South African military helicopters flew low over the cemetery dangling the South African flag on weighted cables and five fighter jets also roared past.

A battery of cannons fired a 21-gun salute that echoed across the rolling hills.

“Yours was truly a long walk to freedom, and now you have achieved the ultimate freedom in the bosom of your maker,” a presiding military chaplain had told mourners at the family gravesite, where three of his children and parents were reburied.

At the graveside were 450 mourners, including members of the Mandela house, Madiba clan, Thembu kingdom, close friends and select dignitaries.

Mandela died on December 5 aged 95. The burial took place among the rolling hills of Qunu, the village in eastern South Africa where Mandela grew up.

BLACK LEADER

The ceremony ended 10 days of painful national mourning during which hundreds of thousands of South Africans paid last respects as the body of the country’s first elected black leader lay in state in Pretoria.

The funeral service took place in a giant marquee that accommodated 4,500 invited guests.

Presidents Zuma, Joyce Banda (Malawi), Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania), former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, Ahmed Kathrada, Mandela’s close friend and his former prison mate, gave moving tributes.

Also present were Desmond Tutu, Britain’s Prince Charles, George Bizos, US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson and business mogul Richard Branson, among others.

Mandela was buried with traditional Xhosa rites in a graveyard that sits on the sprawling family estate Mandela built in Qunu after his release from prison in 1990. An ox was slaughtered, the deceased wrapped in a leopard skin and a family elder kept talking to the body’s spirit.

During the ceremony, Mandela was referred to as Dalibhunga, the name given to him at the age of 16 after undergoing the initiation to adulthood.

Earlier, the final day of South Africa’s former president had begun with his coffin being taken on a gun carriage from his house to a giant marquee.

A battery of cannons positioned on the hillside fired a 21-gun salute.

Members of the family had attended an overnight vigil, where a traditional praise singer is believed to have chanted details of his long journey and life.

The coffin was followed into the tent by Mandela’s grandson and heir, Mandla, and Zuma. Also present was Winnie, his divorced widow.

END OF APARTHEID

It was then placed on black and white Nguni cattle skins in front of a crescent of 95 candles, one for each year of Mandela’s life.

His casket, draped in the South African flag, was placed beneath a lectern where speakers paid their tributes.

The service opened with Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, the national anthem adopted after the end of apartheid in 1994.

Zuma challenged South Africans to carry on with Mandela’s legacy of building a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa.

“Today marks the end of an extraordinary journey that began 95 years ago,” Zuma said. “It is the end of 95 glorious years of a freedom fighter ... a beacon of hope to all those fighting for a just and equitable world order.” “We shall not say goodbye, for you are not gone,” Zuma said. “You’ll live forever in our hearts and minds.

Kathrada, who was a prisoner with Mandela on Robben Island, broke down in emotion as he eulogised his ‘elder brother’.

“When Walter (Sisulu) died, I lost a father. And now I have lost a brother. My life is in a void and I don’t know who to turn to,” he said as his voice trailed off.

“Farewell dear brother, mentor and my leader,” Kathrada added.

Kikwete regaled mourners with tales of a secret visit Mandela made in 1962 to Dar es Salaam to gather support for the ANC.

LEARN TO FORGIVE

“When Madiba left for Accra, he left behind his boots in the home of the family where he stayed in the hope he could pick them up on the way back. Shortly after arriving back in South Africa, he was imprisoned,” Kikwete said. “In 1995, when Mandela was president, the pair of boots was handed back to him.”

Banda, also the current chair of the Southern Africa Development Community, fondly spoke of how despite an assassination attempt on her life, she learnt to forgive, thanks to Mandela.

“I learnt that leadership is about falling in love with the people that you serve and the people falling in love with you. He championed the freedom not only of South Africans but all Africans,” she said

Mandela’s grandson Ndaba Mandela spoke of his life and times. He was followed by granddaughter Nandi, who paid affectionate tribute to her grandfather, recalling his sense of humour and spirit.

“We will miss your laughter, we shall carry the lessons you taught us throughout our lives,” she told mourners.