In Pictures
In pictures: Nelson Mandela’s burial
Former South African leader laid to rest near his childhood home in the village of Qunu.
Qunu, South Africa – Peace icon Nelson Mandela was buried at a ceremony in his ancestral village of Qunu on Sunday, ending a week of commemorations for the man whose struggle for racial equality helped end centuries of white-minority rule.
Mandela was jailed for 27 years on Robben Island by the racist regime, which he courageously opposed. The man known as “Madiba” emerged from prison in 1990 and became the first black president after the country’s first multi-racial elections in 1994.
Mandela served just one term as leader of Africa’s most powerful nation, and formally withdrew from public life in 2004.
A year before he was elected president, he won the Nobel Peace Prize along with FW de Clerk – South Africa’s last apartheid-era president – who helped negotiate the end of racial segregation with Mandela.