‘Long walk’ over as legend is laid to rest,
QUNU, SOUTH AFRICA — His flagdraped casket resting on a carpet of animal skins, Nelson Mandela was laid to rest Sunday in the green, rolling hills of the eastern hamlet where he began his extraordinary journey.
Artillery boomed and military aircraft roared through the sky, as the simple and the celebrated gathered to pay their final respects in Mandela’s native village of Qunu at a state funeral that blended ancient tribal rituals with a display of the might of the new, integrated South Africa.
“Yours was truly a long walk to freedom and now you have achieved the ultimate freedom in the bosom of your maker,” Brig. Gen. Monwabisi Jamangile, chaplain-general of the South African military, said as Mandela’s casket was lowered into the ground.
“I realized that the old man is no more, no more with us,” said Bayanda Nyengule, head of a local museum dedicated to Mandela, his voice cracking as he described the burial attended by several hundred mourners.
The burial site marked a return to Mandela’s humble roots, but the funeral trappings were elaborate. South African honour guards from the army, navy and air force, including both black and white officers, marched in formation along a winding dirt road.
In contrast to the military pomp, some speakers evoked the traditions of the Xhosa tribe, to which Mandela’s Thembu clan belongs.
“A great tree has fallen. He is now going home to rest with his forefathers,” said Chief Ngangomhlaba Matanzima, a representative of Mandela’s family. “We thank them for lending us such an icon.”
In keeping with Xhosa traditions, Mandela’s casket was brought to Qunu Saturday draped in a lion skin, an honour bestowed on those of a high rank. His body lay in his family home for the night, a time when tradition dictates that family elders “talk” to the body to explain to his spirit what is happening.
South African television showed Mandela’s casket at the family gravesite, but the broadcast was stopped just before the coffin was lowered into the ground at the request of the Mandela family.
Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, and his ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela were dressed in black Xhosa head wraps and dresses. Guests included U.S. ambassador Patrick Gaspard and other foreign envoys. Britain’s Prince Charles, Monaco’s Prince Albert II, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and former Zimbabwean prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai also were there.