Nelson Mandela’s Funeral promises to be the greatest memorial ever staged on the continent. More than 140 heads of state will converge on South Africa this week. Double the number who attended the last similar occasion, Pope John Paul II’s funeral in 2005. Ā The Queen of England, whom Mandela called Motlalepula (“the one who brings rain” because of welcome deluges during her last visit to SA) Ā is the only notable not to be making the trip. At 87, time is catching up with her and she has already apologised – but is among the instigators of a memorial service in Westminster Abbey, the first ever for a non-Briton. The British Royals will be represented by the King-in-waiting, Prince Charles.
From The Times of London:
“In Xhosa culture we speak to the spirit of the dead after the person dies,” said Daludumo Mtirara, the brother of the king of Mandela’s clan “We tell the spirit where he is going as we move the body ahead of the burial. We have been doing this with Mandela so his spirit will be able to rest with the spirits of his ancestors in peace.”
Every living American President will be in SA this week, especially Bill Clinton with whom Mandela developed a close bond during the last decade and a half of his life. In the year 2000, Mandela phoned Clinton repeatedly to offer support during his tribulations over the exposure of an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. That cemented a relationship so deep Clinton has been invited to speak at the small family funeral next Sunday in Mandela’s ancestral home of Qunu in the Eastern Cape. Many others will come to SA to bathe in the reflected glory of a national icon driven by ideals and beliefs that resonated with Everyman, not necessarily the rich and famous. Madiba’s relatively modest home on the corner of 12th Avenue in Houghton, the place where he took his last breath on Thursday night, has become a gathering place for hundreds of his fellow citizens. On Tuesday, many of them will join tens of thousands more at the FNB Stadium near Soweto for the Memorial Service. For the rest of the week the icon’s body will be held in State at the Union Buildings in Pretoria before being driven through the streets of the city to allow fellow citizens to pay tribute. Madiba would have approved. – AH
