Mandela's funeral will mix tribal traditions with full state honors

The body of Nelson Mandela arrived on Saturday at his ancestral home in the rolling hills of South Africa's Eastern Cape and was greeted by singing, dancing residents ahead of the anti-apartheid leader's state funeral set for the following day.

As the hearse bearing the remains of the country’s first black president appeared on the horizon, crowds by the road broke into "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" (“God Bless Africa”), the evocative national anthem adopted after the end of apartheid in 1994.

Mandela, who died on Dec. 5 at the age of 95, was to be buried on his family homestead on Sunday after a state funeral combining military pomp and the traditional rites of his Xhosa abaThembu clan.

But in a sign of tensions in South Africa's complicated post-apartheid social fabric, there were suggestions that the peace prevailing in Qunu, a hamlet of a few hundred houses 450 miles south of Johannesburg, was not replicated across the nation of 53 million people.

Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a leading light in the struggle against apartheid while Mandela was in prison, said he had not been invited to the funeral of "Tata," – the Xhosa word for father, by which Mandela is affectionately known among many in South Africa.

"Much as I would have loved to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it would have been disrespectful to Tata to gatecrash what was billed as a private family funeral," Tutu said in a written statement.

Mandela’s close friendship with Tutu was forged in the fight against apartheid. Tutu's absence from the global icon's final farewell raises questions about the outspoken and influential clergyman's strained relationship with the current South African government and ruling African National Congress party.

Tutu’s family spokesman Roger Friedman said on Saturday that the Anglican prelate was not accredited as a member of the clergy for the event in Qunu, but government officials insisted he was on the guest list.

"The archbishop is not an accredited clergy person for the event and will thus not be attending," Friedman said, citing a statement made by Tutu's daughter, the Rev. Mpho Tutu.

Asked about Tutu's attendance, foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela told the Reuters news agency: "Desmond Tutu is definitely on the guest list."

The issue emerged as Mandela's body was being flown to Eastern Cape province for Sunday's funeral, which will be attended by Britain’s Prince Charles and U.S. civil rights activist the Rev. Jessie Jackson, among others.

At a mass memorial ceremony for Mandela on Tuesday in Johannesburg, Tutu was not initially on the speaker's list, but he was eventually invited to the podium and tried to calm an unruly crowd that had booed President Jacob Zuma.

As of Saturday night, it remained unclear whether or not Tutu would attend the burial.

Mandela’s state funeral will be a mix of traditional tribal rituals, Christian elements and those of a state funeral.

Following a tradition called Thetha, Xhosa culture requires a family elder to stay with Mandela's body and explain to his spirit what is happening. "When the body lies there, the spirit is still alive," said the Rev. Wesley Mabuza, chairman of South Africa's Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the right of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.

"The body must be informed of whatever is happening before the funeral," said Nokuzola Mndende, director of the Icamagu Institute for traditional religions. The body must also rest for one night in his family house before the burial.

"On Sunday he must then be told 'Madiba, we are now burying you'," she added, using Mandela’s clan name in an expression of affection and respect.

The deceased must be wrapped in a special garment. For people of a high rank like Mandela, who is the son of a traditional clan chief, the body or the casket is usually wrapped in a leopard's skin, according to Mndende.

"But because Madiba is also a former statesman, maybe there will also be the South African flag," she said. Mabuza added: "It's a ritual showing deep respect for the deceased."

Tradition also requires the slaughtering of an animal early on the day of the burial. After the ritual throat-slitting, the animal will be eaten by the mourners, usually outside the family house. For people of a high rank like Mandela an ox will be killed, Mndende said.

"That ox is slaughtered, cooked and eaten all in one day," she said. In some regions no salt will be used to season the meat, but in the area of Mandela's clan that's up to the family's discretion, she said.

A year after the burial another ox will be slaughtered and eaten by the family to mark the end of the mourning period, in a tradition called Ukuzila.  About another year later a joyous ceremony is celebrated to bring back the deceased into the family so that the person will henceforth be looking over the family and its children as a well-meaning ancestor, a ritual called Ukubuyisa, according to Mndende.

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