Nelson Mandela is laid to rest after four hour service w. tribal burial rites with GUESTS DRINKING BLOOD OF SLAUGHTERED OX! (video also)

'Madiba, we are now burying you': South Africa's first black president is laid to rest at his ancestral home in Qunu on tenth day of national mourning.

Thousands lined the streets to watch his funeral cortège as it made its way to the tiny hamlet in Eastern Cape.

The anti-apartheid icon died at his Johannesburg home on December 5 at the age of 95 after long battle with illness. The South African flag draped on his coffin was handed to his widow Graca before body was lowered into the ground
Air force jets carry out fly-past over grave accompanied by 21-gun salute and soloist playing.

His Xhosa tribe will have slaughtered ox and offered guests blood - although dignitaries probably offered cooked meat
Mourners included Prince Charles, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and Idris Elber.

Current president Jacob Zuma said Mandela was 'a fountain of wisdom, a pillar of strength and a beacon of hope'.
'Today marks the end of extraordinary journey that began 95 years ago, the long walk to freedom has ended', he said
Nandi Mandela said: 'Go well, Madiba. Go well to the land of our ancestors, you have run your race'

Funeral overruns by 105 minutes, meaning the tribal tradition that members are buried at noon was missed.

Seats were filled during the state funeral service as soldiers were moved in to occupy empty chairs.

Nelson Mandela has today been buried in the remote village where the anti-apartheid icon grew up after a four-hour state funeral attended by thousands of mourners.

South Africa's first black president died in his Johannesburg home on December 5 at the age of 95 after a long battle with illness, and he was laid to rest in his grave in Qunu in Eastern Cape province after ten days of mourning in his beloved country.

Troops lined the route up to the hillside where he was buried as Mandela was carried on a gun carriage to a plot on his family’s estate.

As his body was placed on the grave the South African flag on the coffin was removed and handed to Mandela's widow Graca Machel, who was comforted by his ex-wife Winnie Mandela.

A fly-past then followed accompanied by a 21-gun salute and a solitary trumpeter played the Last Post while his body was lowered into the ground.

As he was buried armed forces Chaplain General Monwabisi Jamangile said: 'Yours was truly a long walk to freedom, and now you have achieved the ultimate freedom, in the bosom of your maker.'

His funeral was also marked by his Xhosa tribe whose elders traditionally slaughter an ox to accompany the deceased's spirit after burial, while guests are asked to drink its blood from a communal bowl.

But it is understood dignitaries such as Prince Charles were likely to be offered the animal's meat to eat instead after it was cooked on an open fire.

Mandela's family also talked to him until he was lowered into the earth and will have said 'Madiba, we are now burying you,' a tradition followed so the souls of the dead know where they are going in the afterlife.


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Last Edited by Ms. Superduper on 12/15/2013 01:44 PM