Several thousand gathered in a huge white tent at the Mandela family compound for the state funeral that preceded a private service at the gravesite.
Songs, speeches and the boom of artillery rang across the fields and a tribal chief draped in animal skin declared: “A great tree has fallen.”
Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail as a prisoner of the racist white government and emerged to lead a transition to a multiracial democracy, died on Dec. 5 at the age of 95 after a long illness.
His portrait looked over the assembly in the tent from behind a bank of 95 candles representing each year of his remarkable life.
His casket, transported to the tent on a gun carriage, rested on a carpet of cow skins below a lectern where speakers delivered eulogies.
Ahmed Kathrada, an anti-apartheid activist who was jailed on Robben Island with Mandela, remembered his old friend's “abundant reserves” of love, patience and tolerance.
He said it was painful when he saw Mandela for the last time, months ago in his hospital bed.
Some listeners wiped away tears as Kathrada spoke.
