BY CORRESPONDENT
16th December 2013
21-gun salute, fly-past for nation's first black president Zuma pledges to strive for free, equal society Prince Charles, Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey among guests
The Nobel peace laureate, who was held in apartheid prisons for 27 years before emerging to preach forgiveness and reconciliation, was laid to rest at his ancestral home in Qunu after a send-off combining military pomp with the traditional rites of his Xhosa abaThembu clan.
As the coffin was lowered into the wreath-ringed grave, three army helicopters flew over bearing the South African flag on weighted cables, a poignant echo of the anti-apartheid leader's inauguration as the nation's first black president nearly two decades ago.
A battery fired a 21-gun salute, the booms reverberating around the rolling hills of the Eastern Cape, before five fighter jets flying low in formation roared over the valley.
"Yours was truly a long walk to freedom, and now you have achieved the ultimate freedom in the bosom of your maker," armed forces Chaplain General Monwabisi Jamangile said at the grave site, where three of Mandela's children already lie.
Among the 450 mourners at the private burial ceremony were relatives, political leaders and foreign guests including Britain's Prince Charles, American civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
Mandela died aged 95 in Johannesburg on Dec. 5, plunging his 52 million countrymen and women and millions more around the world into grief, and triggering more than a week of official memorials to one of the towering figures of the 20th century.
Over 100,000 people paid their respects in person at Mandela's lying in state at Pretoria's Union Buildings, where he was sworn in as president in 1994, an event that brought the curtain down on more than three centuries of white domination.
When his body arrived on Saturday in Qunu, 700 km (450 miles) south of Johannesburg, it was greeted by ululating locals overjoyed that Madiba, the clan name by which he was affectionately known, had "come home".
"After his long life and illness he can now rest," said grandmother Victoria Ntsingo. "His work is done."
Before the burial, 4,500 family, friends and dignitaries attended the state funeral service in a huge domed tent, its interior draped in black, in a field near Mandela's homestead.
The flag-covered casket was carried in by military chiefs, with Mandela's grandson and heir, Mandla, and South African President Jacob Zuma following in their footsteps.
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, as a choir sang Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, the national anthem adopted after the end of apartheid in 1994.
"The person who is lying here is South Africa's greatest son," said Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), who presided over the three-hour ceremony broadcast live across the nation and around the world.
From the Limpopo River in the north to Cape Town in the south, millions watched on television or listened to the radio. In some locations, big screens transmitted the event live.
"Qunu is too far to go, so I gathered with some people here so we can mourn together. I can say he is a hero, a man of the people," said 29-year-old Message Sibanda, among about 100 others watching in Johannesburg's Sandton financial district.
At the service, touching tributes were paid to the father of the "Rainbow Nation" he helped forge from apartheid's ashes. "Farewell my dear brother, my mentor, my leader," said lifelong friend and fellow Robben Island inmate Ahmed Kathrada, his voice cracking with emotion, drawing tears from mourners.
In his eulogy, Zuma paid tribute to a life that went from freedom-fighter to political prisoner to president. He also briefly turned attention to the future, pledging to continue Mandela's quest for a free and equal society, free from racial discrimination.
"Whilst the long walk to freedom has ended in the physical sense, our own journey continues. We have to continue building the type of society you worked tirelessly to construct. We have to take the legacy forward," Zuma said.
Mandela served just one term as leader of Africa's biggest and most sophisticated economy, and formally withdrew from public life in 2004, famously telling reporters at the end of a farewell news conference:"Don't call me, I'll call you."
His last appearance in public was at the 2010 World Cup final in Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium, waving to fans from the back of a golf cart.
In tribute to "Tata Madiba" ANC Deputy leader Cyril Ramaphosa: said: "The person who is lying here is South Africa's greatest son."
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Chairperson of the African Union noted: "Madiba's life has been a record of all the trials and tribulations the entire continent had to endure in the hands of ruthless colonisers and inhuman masters.
"Madiba's life was the mirror of the continent, for the liberation of which he so relentlessly fought. Africa is forever indebted to him for that."
Mandela's granddaughter Nandi Mandela, speaking on behalf of his children and grandchildren said:"'Tatamkhulo' ('our grandad' in Xhosa) was a lot of fun to be around ... he had a great sense of humour.
"He went to school barefeet and yet he rose to the highest office in the land."
Joyce Banda, President OF Malawi and Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said:
"The struggle Tata Madiba led against the apartheid system was not just a struggle against racial inequality, but a struggle against all forms of oppression against humanity.
"A struggle for democracy and human dignity, it was a struggle for the emancipation of the youth, a struggle for the social security of children, it was a struggle for participation of women in commerce, in politics and in high office."
Kenneth Kaunda, former president of ZAMBIA, whose country was one of the African "Frontline States" opposing apartheid said: "This great son of the world, Madiba, showed us the way.
Whether you are white, black, yellow or brown, you are all God's children. Come together, work together.
"As we go on without Madiba, he is no more in terms of this life but he is still Madiba our leader. He is the Madiba sent to us by God."
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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