Nelson Mandela laid to rest like the king he was, with rituals from his Xhosa people

Zulu warriors dance to honour South Africa’s late President Nelson Mandela on a hill above the graveyard within the Mandela family’s property in the village of Qunu where he was buried Sunday.  [PHOTO: REUTERS]

QUNU, SOUTH AFRICA:  An ox is slaughtered, the deceased is wrapped in a lion skin and a family elder keeps talking to the body’s spirit: The state funeral for South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela also included those rituals from the tradition of Xhosa people, to whom Mandela’s Thembu clan belongs.

The coffin of the country’s first democratically elected President on Sunday was wrapped in the South African flag, standing atop animal skins at the beginning of the funeral in Mandela’s south eastern childhood village of Qunu. The ceremony was poised to be an eclectic mix of traditional rituals, Christian elements and those of a state funeral.