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Mandela heads to South Africa home for burial

Children from Mandela favela hold flowers during a tribute to honor late former South African President Nelson Mandela at the Copacabana beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday. People around the world held tributes for Mandela, who died on Dec. 5 at the age of 95. (Associated Press)
Christopher Torchia Associated Press

QUNU, South Africa – Nelson Mandela came home Saturday.

A hearse carrying Mandela’s body drove into his hometown in rural South Africa ahead of burial today, returning the country’s peacemaker to the place where he had always wanted to die.

It was here in Qunu that Mandela roamed the hills and tended livestock as a youth, absorbing lessons about discipline and consensus from traditional chiefs. From here he embarked on a journey – the “long walk to freedom” as he put it – that thrust him to the forefront of black South Africans’ struggle for equal rights that resonated around the world.

As motorcyclists in uniform and armored personnel carriers escorted the vehicle carrying Mandela’s casket to the family compound, people lining the route sang, applauded and, in some cases, wept.

“When I saw the hearse passing, I couldn’t hold my excitement. I felt like I was holding him by the hand,” said Norma Khobo. “It was very exciting, I saw him!”

The vehicle carrying Mandela’s casket, covered with a national flag, was accompanied by an enormous convoy of police, military and other vehicles, and a military helicopter hovered overhead.

According to Xhosa tribal tradition, Mandela was honored as a leader by placing a skin on the coffin, replacing the flag.

Mandela’s journey started Saturday with pomp and ceremony at an air base in the capital before being flown aboard a military plane to this simple village in the wide-open spaces of eastern South Africa.

At the Mthatha airport Mandela’s casket was welcomed by a military guard and placed in a convoy for the 20-mile voyage toward Qunu. Residents and people who had traveled for hours thronged a road leading to Qunu, singing and dancing as Mandela T-shirts were handed out.

Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, and his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, tearfully embraced at Mthatha airport when the casket arrived.

Mandela had been imprisoned for 27 years for opposing racist apartheid and emerged in 1990 to forge a new democratic South Africa by promoting forgiveness and reconciliation. He became president in 1994 after South Africa’s first all-race democratic elections.

The late president died in his Johannesburg home Dec. 5 at age 95.