MORE MEMORIES

MANDELA'S FUNERAL REMEMBERED
Already the memories are fading.
I set up all my sewing equipment for a morning in front of the TV.
Not a moment will be missed especially those candid unposed moments
I am not disappointed.
Picking out famous faces in the crowd becomes a game as there is no helpful commentator to prod you.
Green with touches of yellow, favourite colours linked to ANC are used by the ladies in the greatest variety of combinations. Favoured headgear varies from exotic stylish turbans to the most humble head scarfs worn by the simple country women with blankets over their shoulders, "Shwe-shwe" skirts and bare feet.
Speeches good on the whole.
Nandi Mandela speaks with warmth and great affection of her grandfather who enjoyed a joke even if it went against him. (like the story of his acute embarrassment when as a young man hoping to impress a young lady he had great difficulty with a piece of chicken that kept jumping off his plate.
Joyce Banda also speaks with great empathy of Mandela's inspiration by example. His ideal of reconciliation that kept her going when times were hard and opponents were being exceedingly unkind.
Kenneth Kaunda brings light relief. First of all by trying to jog onto the stage in the energetic style adopted by some talk show hosts. Never-mind that it looks like an energetic shuffle, the audience get the point and love it. He then procedes to be politically incorrect by referring to the Nationalist party as the "Boer Party". The audience loves this even more and feel part of the struggle as they enjoy struggle jokes. When Cyril Ramoposa tries to get him to conclude his speech as time is running out he complains that he is "trying to control an old man who fought the Boers." More laughter.
Visual images to be remembered:
*The green hills of Qunu dotted with small houses and huts as a backdrop to a procession like a long caterpillar of green and white moving rhythmically down the slope to the beat of drums, escourting a much loved hero to his last resting place.
*The stoic grief of Gracia Machel.
*The 95 candles, one for each year of Madiba's life.
*The absence of images when the coffin was lowered into the ground thus respecting the family's right to privacy.
And much, much more.