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Nelson Mandela Is Laid To Rest After Four Hour Long Service And Full Tribal Burial Rites

By C. J. Refsland on December 15, 2013 • ( 0 )

Excerpts from the Daily Mail:

His funeral was also marked by his Xhosa tribe whose elders will have slaughtered an ox to accompany his spirit after burial, while guests would be asked to drink its blood from a communal bowl.

But it is understood dignitaries such as Prince Charles were probably offered the animal’s meat to eat instead after it was cooked on an open fire.

Mandela’s family also talked to him until he lowered into the earth and will have said ‘Madiba, we are now burying you,’ a tradition followed so the souls of the dead know where they are going.

Prominent people are traditionally wrapped in an animal skin – kings are covered with the hide of a lion, but because Mandela was a clan chief he will have been wrapped in leopard skin.One important element of the funeral process is the ritual slaughtering of an ox, whose bellows are believed to be a sign that the ancestors are welcoming the dead man to the spirit world.A banquet is then traditionally held after the burial service at which guests drink the blood of the sacrificed ox.It is not known whether this tradition has been respected at Mandela’s funeral, but it is likely that foreign guests such as Prince Charles would be offered meat rather than blood. A year from now, another ox will be slaughtered in commemoration of Mandela, and a year after that the family will hold a ceremony to ensure that his spirit continues to guide and watch over them. Xhosa tradition dictates that bodies must be buried at noon, ‘when the sun is at its highest and the shadow at its shortest’ – but this requirement was failed because the funeral service was running late.In addition, the organisers of the ceremony ignored the tradition that funerals should be open to anyone who wants to attend, with 4,500 hand-picked guests invited and locals barred from the hall. Professor Zilibele Mtumane, an expert on African languages and culture, told the BBC that the unique nature of Mandela’s funeral means that it may not have complied with all traditional practices.

But he added: ‘I also think some of the traditional practices might have been conducted last evening already. That is why we don’t see much of them here.’

Full Article via Military honor guard escorts Nelson Mandela’s casket to its final resting place as funeral takes place for anti-apartheid leader | Mail Online.