A funeral cortege carrying
Nelson Mandela's body arrived Saturday in his ancestral village of Qunu, in
South Africa's Eastern Cape province, where he'll be buried surrounded by the
lush green hills of his boyhood.
South Africa's first black
president will be laid to rest in Qunu on Sunday.
After a plane carrying his casket
touched down in Mthatha, the closest airport to Qunu, it was transported in a
procession to his rural home. Mourners lined the roads to pay their
respects.
Mandela has always said he feels
most at peace at the rural home in the southeastern corner of the nation.
"Look, he loved these hills. He
really believed this is where he belonged," his daughter, Maki Mandela, told CNN
in an exclusive interview.
His burial Sunday comes after 10
days of mourning for the international anti-apartheid icon.
Before his journey home, the
ruling African National Congress bid him farewell Saturday morning at an air
force base in Pretoria.
Members of the ruling party stood
around his black, flag-draped casket. They bowed and prayed.
"Icon of our struggle. Father of
our nation," read a giant poster with a picture of a smiling Mandela.
His wife, Graca Machel, sat on
the front row, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief.
"We will miss him. He was our
leader in a special time. Go well, Tata," President Jacob Zuma said, using the
Xhosa word for father. "You've played your part. You've made your contribution.
We'll always remember you."
Helicopters hovered overhead as
soldiers marched the casket into the military plane. It was followed by fighter
jets as it took off for Qunu.
'He really wanted to die
here'
Though dined by presidents and
kings, Mandela relished his time at the simple village, which has endless open
fields and velvety green grass. It's where he herded cows and goats as a child;
where his relatives are buried at the family farm.
"Even when my father was in
jail, he had the most fondest memories of Qunu. And he really wanted to die
here," Maki Mandela said.
Throngs of mourners
lined the streets as the military carried Nelson Mandela's body home for the
last time.
The mood among the crowd
appeared to be one of celebration of his life, as well as sadness for his
passing.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the U.S.
civil rights leader, told CNN that this was "a day of painful celebration."
"People are beginning to realize
what they've lost, but they know they've got so much left. They know what he
left in place stays in place," said Jackson, referring to the sweeping political
and social change achieved by the anti-apartheid leader.
He will be among the guests at
Mandela's funeral Sunday. He also attended other ceremonies of remembrance in
the past week.
Once in Qunu, the tributes will
get more intimate.
The military will hand over his
remains to elders at his home. And to symbolize a return of one of their own,
the national flag over his coffin will be replaced with a traditional symbol of
the Xhosa people.
At dusk, tribal leaders and men
in his family will hold a private night vigil to honor traditions of his native
Thembu clan.
His casket will lie in his
bedroom overnight. The room overlooks the hills and his grave site.
Villagers may gather outside the
house to pay their respects
Small village, giant
spotlight
Mandela died last week at age
95.
Events leading up to the burial
included a memorial service Tuesday followed by three days of public viewing at
Pretoria's Union Buildings, where he was sworn in as president in 1994.
About 100,000 people paid homage
to Mandela in the three days he lay in state, government officials said.
Thousands are expected to make
the trip to Qunu for the burial, thrusting the remote village into the
international spotlight. The mourners will include dozens of foreign dignitaries
making their way along the back roads of his rural resting place.
Notable names on the guest list
include Britain's Prince Charles and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey.
However, Archbishop Desmond Tutu
won't be there, saying he canceled his travel plans after he received no
notification that he was invited.
"Much as I would have loved to
attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it
would have been disrespectful to Tata to gatecrash what was billed as a private
family funeral," he said.
"Had I or my office been
informed that I would be welcome, there is no way on Earth that I would have
missed it."
Zuma's spokesman Mac Maharaj
told CNN that as far as he was aware, Tutu's name was on the guest list.
"It's been a challenge, it's
been a serious challenge. But, hey, my grandfather was born here," Tukwini
Mandela said of planning the logistics. "It's a mix of emotions, some of us are
very teary because this is where my grandfather told us who we were as the
Mandelas."
About 400 family and close
friends will walk to the grave site to bid a final farewell to the man who spent
27 years in prison and emerged to lead the nation out of its grim apartheid
era.
He will be laid to rest in the
afternoon when the sun is high in the sky.
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