Sunday, December 15, 2013

Photos:It's Goodbye Time As Nelson Mandela Is Finally Laid To Rest In His Childhood Home

Final journey: The coffin of former South African President Nelson Mandela is carried by military personnel at the end of his funeral service in his ancestral village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape

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.
Dignitaries descend on his small village, including Prince Charles, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Oprah Winfrey 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'
See more photos below...


A nation in mourning: Three helicopters carrying South African flags fly over the burial site today as a much smaller crowd of mourners watched the great statesman laid to rest after ten days of official mourning

Goodbye to an icon: Nelson Mandela's coffin is slowly lowered into the ground in the hills close to where he grew up at the small, private burial today in Qunu as military salute and mourners watch the poignant moment
Poignant: Nelson Mandela's coffin was carried to his grave and then the flag of the country he loved so ardently was removed and handed to his widow Graca Machel
Gathered to remember Madiba: South Africa's president Jacob Zuma (2nd left), Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Mandela (left), and the widow of Mandela, Graca Machel (3rd left), sit by his coffin
Winne Mandela(left,), SA presdient Jacod Zuma (center) Wife of Mandela Grace Machel(3rd left)
Embrace: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who initially claimed he had not been invited to the funeral, hugs former president Thabo Mbeki
Archbishop Desmond  Tutu
Rerpesenting Britain: The Queen sent the Prince of Wales, pictured here speaking to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a politician and former wife of Jacob Zuma
Prince Charles  of Wales sent by the Queen with  former wife of SA president Jacod Zuma
Mourners: US talk show host Oprah Winfrey, centre, her husband Stedman Graham, left, and English businessman Richard Branson, right, watching the funeral service
Oprah  Winfery(center)  and boyfriend Stedman Graham(left), english businessman Richard Branson(right)
Praise: President Jacob Zuma said that Mandela was 'a fountain of wisdom, a pillar of strength and a beacon of hope'
President Jacod Zuma
Final journey: The coffin carrying former South African President Nelson Mandela is escorted into his state funeral service in Qunu this morning
Moved: Mandela's daughter Makaziwe, centre, sits in front of her father's coffin during the ceremony
Mandela's daughter Makaziwe sits infront of her father's coffin during ceremony
Tears: The former president's daughter Zindzi comforts another mourner
Former president daughter Zindzi comforts a mourner
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