South Africa bids final farewell to Mandela

Big guns have fired a salute in the rural village where Nelson Mandela grew up and military servicemen marched stiffly behind his casket on a winding dirt road as South Africa said goodbye for the last time to the man who reconciled the country in its most vulnerable period.

Several thousand guests, some singing and dancing, gathered in a huge tent at the family compound of the anti-apartheid leader, who died December 5 at the age of 95 after a long illness.