QUNU - South Africa buries anti-apartheid icon and it’s “greatest son” Nelson Mandela in the rolling hills of his ancestral home on Sunday, capping a week of commemorations.
Under blue sky and as artillery salutes rang out, Mandela's flag-draped coffin was carried through the village of Qunu with a military escort to the huge pavilion where the funeral took place. It was placed in front of a platform decorated with dozens of large candles flanked by flowers.
Choral music rang out and sometimes barnstorming speeches spoke to Mandela's revolutionary past and the continent's struggles to end colonialism, as well as his impact on people throughout the world.
“Millions of people around the world have had their own Madiba moment,” Cyril Ramaphosa, activist, trade union leader and politician said during the ceremony, referring to Mandela by his clan name.
“The person who lies here is South Africa’s greatest son,” he added, standing in front of a platform holding 95 lit candles, one for every year Mandela lived.
Nelson Mandela to be laid to rest Sunday
Preparations continue for the final act of remembering Nelson Mandela, laying the former South African president to rest. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
The funeral drew 4,500 guests, from relatives and South African leaders to Britain's Prince Charles, U.S. civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson and talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Retired Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, fellow Nobel peace laureate and close friend of Mandela's, also announced he would attend Mandela’s funeral, after an apparent misunderstanding about his attendance was resolved.
Mandela, who died in Johannesburg at age 95 on Dec. 5, was imprisoned for 27 years for opposing apartheid and emerged to forge a new democratic South Africa by promoting forgiveness and reconciliation.The funeral will mark an end to days of official memorials paid to the man credited with ending the racist white-only rule and becoming the country’s first democratically elected president.
While heavy on pomp and Mandela’s place in history, the ceremony also touched on the personal grief that some were feeling.
Former fellow political activist and prisoner Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada said, “the boxer, the prisoner who easily wielded the pick and shovel” has “left us to join the A-team of the ANC.”
The ANC, or African National Congress, is the formerly outlawed anti-apartheid organization that is now South Africa’s ruling party.
“Farewell, my dear brother, my mentor, my leader,” he said while standing in front of a platform holding 95 lit candles, one for every year Mandela lived. “My life is in a void and I don’t know who to turn to.”
Mandela's widow and third wife, Graca Machel, also looked mournful and wiped away tears as those around her celebrated Mandela's legacy.
The language of apartheid occasionally slipped into a service that became a celebration of the defeat of racial segregation, in addition to the Mandela's life. Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda hailed Mandela as "a great freedom fighter," and referred several times to “Boer," which means farmer in Afrikaans and can be used as a derogatory term for white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans.
Mandela's body arrived Saturday in the Eastern Cape village, almost 500 miles south of Johannesburg, where it was greeted by singing and dancing local residents. As police and military helicopters buzzed overhead, the hearse carrying his body rolled with a police escort into this community of homes scattered between green pastures.
Gugulethu Gxumisa, 19, of Qunu, was on the street, cheering with friends as the convoy passed through the entrance of the village.
"We are here because we wanted to see Mandela using this road for the last time,” she said. “I am proud that we are here in this village. We grew up here where Mandela grew up."
As many as 100,000 people paid their respects in person as Mandela's body lay in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, a symbol of racist white rule that Mandela helped overthrow and where he was inaugurated as president in 1994.
At a memorial service Tuesday, Mandela was lauded as a “giant of history” and “one of the greatest leaders of our time” as tens of thousands cheered and almost 100 world leaders paid tribute. President Barack Obama, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and some of Mandela's grandchildren addressed the service.
“His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy,” Obama told the crowd at the 95,000-capacity stadium in Soweto. “The world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us.
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