Sunday 15 December 2013

Madiba laid to rest!


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

Mourners sang Nkosi Sikelel, South Africa's national anthem with lyrics from several languages as Nelson Mandela was laid to rest at a ceremony in his home village of Qunu, ending a week of commemorations for the man whose tortured struggle for racial equality helped end white-minority rule. 

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

Arm in arm: Mandela's second wife Winnie Madikizela Mandela (far right) and the statesman's widow Graca Machel (centre) walk together as he is about to be buried

Air force tribute: A squadron of South African jets flew across the skies above the Eastern Cape hills where Mandela spent his formative years

Representing the UK: Prince Charles stands alongside Judith Macgregor, British High Commissioner in South Africa as they watch Mandela finally laid to rest

Last steps: After being carefully taken from his gun carriage, Mandela's coffin was wheeled the final few yards before being placed above his final resting place

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

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

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

Mourners: US talk show host Oprah Winfrey, centre, her husband Stedman Graham, left, and English businessman Richard Branson, right, watching the funeral service

Religious movement: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, centre, is surrounded by clergymen at his Christian burial after his state funeral was dominated by political eulogies

Civil rights campaigner: American Jesse Jackson, a close friend of Mandela's meets Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, right, and Lindiwe Sisulu, left, at the burial

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