Madiba comes home

Madiba comes home to rest, Qunu, 14 December 2013 - the body of former President Nelson Mandela is transported to his home in Qunu ahead of his funeral the following day. People had lined up alongside the R61 all day waiting for the final return of the village's famous son. There was a collective sadness among people, but also an outpouring of gratitude and reverence for the man who was born here in 1918. People spoke fondly about Madiba as a man of the people who loved children and enjoyed taking walks in the village - visiting old friends and playing with children. The funeral service which took place on Mandela's property was out of bounds for ordinary citizens including some of his relatives and his immediate neighbour Nonkululeko Jada. Her home which is separated from Madiba's property by a security fence comprised a green-painted earth-built rondavel, flanked by a two-roomed house, and was among many in the village without electricity. Jada did not have a TV, cooked her meals on a paraffin stove like other Qunu residents, and collected water from the streams in the green valleys. When Madiba was laid to rest on his property just some 100 metres away from Jada’s home, the 60-year-old grandmother sat watching proceedings from a big screen set up on a hill overlooking Mandela’s home. Jada said although Mandela never visited her, he always greeted her on many of his walkabouts around the village. She once worked as a temporary labourer on Mandela’s small vegetable farming project and remembers the former president’s humility, kindness and his love for people. “It’s not right,” she said about the exclusion of locals from the Mandela home. “He is our neighbour and in our culture here in the village when a neighbour dies, we must go to the house to mourn with them." She said she learnt about Mandela’s passing on the radio when President Jacob Zuma made the announcement a few hours after his death. The next morning she found soldiers posted around the Mandela property and near her home. “They told me we were not allowed into Tata’s home. I could not understand because Tata is our father and neighbour,” she said. Her home was still flanked by military armoured vehicles and soldiers keeping a close eye on Mandela’s property on the day of Madiba's funeral. A crowd of less than 100 people gathered on the hill overlooking the Mandela homestead to follow funeral proceedings on the big screen. Some elders had walked long distances from neighbouring villages to watch the funeral service on the big screen. Photo: Lucas Ledwaba