South Africa's first black president has been laid to rest at his rural childhood home after family, friends and dignitaries attended a state funeral service filled with emotional eulogies.
Nelson Mandela was buried on Sunday at the family plot at his ancestral home in Qunu, watched by his widow Graca Machel, ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, other family members and about 450 selected guests.
South Africa's first black president was laid to rest after a state funeral. Photo: AFP / GCIS / Kopano Tlape
As the coffin was lowered into the grave, three army helicopters flew over bearing the South African flag on weighted cables. A battery fired a 21-gun salute before five fighter jets flying low in formation roared over the valley.
Among the mourners at the private burial ceremony were relatives, political leaders and foreign guests including Britain's Prince Charles, American civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
While the formal section of the state funeral was broadcast live to the world, the burial rituals were closed to the public on the wishes of the Mandela family.
Graca Machel (left), Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and President Jacob Zuma. Photo: AFP / GCIS / Edmond Jiyane
The Nobel peace laureate, who was imprisoned for 27 years before emerging to preach forgiveness and reconciliation, died in Johannesburg on 5 December aged 95.
Before the burial, 4500 family, friends and dignitaries attended the state funeral service in a huge domed tent, its interior draped in black, in a field near Mr Mandela's homestead.
At the service, touching tributes were paid to the father of the "Rainbow Nation" he helped forge from apartheid's ashes, Reuters reports.
Close friend and fellow Robben Island inmate Ahmed Kathrada, his voice cracking with emotion, told mourners he had lost a brother, mentor and leader.
In his eulogy, President Zuma paid tribute to a life that went from freedom-fighter to political prisoner to president. He also briefly turned attention to the future, pledging to continue Mandela's quest for a free and equal society, free from racial discrimination.
