Nelson Mandela Funeral and Burial Sunday Dec 15,2013

During three days of public viewing to see the coffin, long queues of people formed

Members of the African National Congress have been paying final tributes to Nelson Mandela at a ceremony ahead of Sunday's funeral.

President Jacob Zuma, other ANC leaders and more than 1,000 members of the ANC attended the ceremony at the Waterkloof Air Base in Pretoria.US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson and Ireland's Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams were among the foreign guests invited.

Nelson Mandela's coffin, draped with the ANC flag, was taken there from a mortuary in the city.

Members of the Mandela family remained with the coffin through the ceremony

 
Winnie Mandela (left), ex-wife of former South African President, and Graca Macel, widow of Mandela, wipe away tears as his flag-draped coffin arrives at the Mthata airport

After the farewell ceremony, the coffin will be taken to Nelson Mandela's ancestral home in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape

Military officers and Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela, rear, accompany the casket of the former South African President as it arrives in Qunu

The flag-draped casket of South Africa's first black president arrives in Mandela's village

 A parade of servicemen lead the casket to the funeral

A gun salute is fired as the funeral procession nears the Mandela family compound

The hearse carrying the coffin of former South African president Nelson Mandela passes by the tent dome set up in Qunu for his funeral

Nelson Mandela's coffin is carried into the white tent for the service

Nelson Mandela's casket, covered in the nation's flag, was placed on a cattle skin as the service combined elements of traditional and state funerals

some 4,500 people - including foreign dignitaries - attended the state funeral

.The gun carriage carrying Mr Mandela's body began its journey to the marquee, signalling the start of singing, and speeches reflecting on the life and achievements of  Mandela

Mandela was laid to rest following a short graveside sermon by Bishop Siwa. As a military bugler played the Last Post, followed by Reveille, the pall bearers saluted and then withdrew as did the cameras, allowing the Mandela family a private moment at the graveside

Nelson Mandela's portrait had been placed behind 95 candles, representing one for each year of the late president's life

Nelson Mandela funeral to include Xhosa tribal rituals

An ox will be slaughtered, the deceased will be wrapped in a leopard skin and a family elder will keep talking to the body’s spirit — The state funeral for South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on Sunday will also include those rituals from the tradition of the Xhosa people, to whom Mandela’s Thembu clan belongs.

The funeral in Mandela’s southeastern childhood village of Qunu will be an eclectic mix of traditional rituals, Christian elements and those of a state funeral

The Xhosa people

The majority of the country’s 7 million Xhosa people live in the country’s southeast, in the Eastern Cape Province. Their language, Xhosa, is famous for its three click sounds. The Xhosa recognise the presence of ancestral spirits and call upon them for guidance. Veneration for the world of the ancestors, or Umkhapho in Xhosa, plays an important role in their culture. The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the ways the ancestors are called upon for help, according to a website of South Africa’s Tourism Department. 

Talking to the body

Following a tradition called Thetha, Xhosa culture requires a family elder to stay with Mandela’s body and explain to his spirit what is happening. “When the body lies there, the spirit is still alive,” said Rev. Wesley Mabuza, chairman of South Africa’s Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the right of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.

“The body must be informed of whatever is happening before the funeral,” said Nokuzola Mndende, director of the Icamagu Institute for traditional religions. The body must rest for one night in his family house before the burial. “On Sunday he must then be told ‘Madiba, we are now burying you’,” she added, using his clan name in an expression of affection and respect. 

Wrapped in a leopard skin

The deceased must be wrapped in a special garment. For people of a high rank like Mandela, who is the son of a traditional clan chief, the body or the casket is usually wrapped in a leopard’s skin, according to Ms. Mndende. “But because Madiba is also a former statesman, maybe there will also be the South African flag,” she said. Rev. Mabuza added: “It’s a ritual showing deep respect for the deceased.” 

Slaughtering the ox

Xhosa tradition requires the slaughtering of an animal early on the day of the burial. After the ritual throat slitting, the animal will be eaten by the mourners, usually outside the family house. For people of a high rank like Mandela an ox will be killed, Ms. Mndende said.

“That ox is slaughtered, cooked and eaten all in one day,” she said. In some regions no salt will be used to season the meat, but in the area of Mandela’s clan that’s up to the family’s discretion
 

 End of the mourning

A year after the burial another ox will be slaughtered and eaten by the family to mark the end of the mourning period, in a tradition called Ukuzila. “There must be a time when the mourning is broken,” Ms. Mndende said. 

Bringing back ritual

About another year later a joyous ceremony is celebrated to bring back the deceased into the family so that the person will henceforth be looking over the family and its children as a well-meaning ancestor, a ritual called Ukubuyisa