South Africa's 'great son' Nelson Mandela buried in family plot at his boyhood home

Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president and most revered citizen, was laid to rest yesterday at his rural home next to the remains of three of his six children, ending a 10-day official mourning period.

Mandela's casket was buried at his family plot in his rural boyhood home of Qunu, watched by his widow Graca Machel, ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, other family members and about 450 selected guests.

Military jets and helicopters with South African flags flew over the pallbearers. About 4,500 relatives, friends and colleagues bid farewell to Mandela at a funeral service in a giant marquee erected in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape province, before military pallbearers removed his coffin for burial.

Mandela's portrait looked over the assembly in the white tent from behind a bank of 95 candles representing each year of his remarkable life.

Watch: Nelson Mandela's historic journey comes to an end in Qunu

His casket, transported to the tent on a gun carriage and draped in the national flag, rested on a carpet of cow skins below a lectern where speakers delivered eulogies. "It is the end of 95 glorious years of a freedom fighter, a dedicated and humble servant of the people of South Africa," President Jacob Zuma said after leading mourners in a song from the fight against apartheid.