Zimbabwe's Mugabe Laid to Rest as Hero-Like Savior

Days following the announcement of his death, Zimbabwe's founder Robert Mugabe was honored as an icon, principled leader and African intellectual giant at a state funeral on Saturday.

The burial comes after disputes about the place his body should be put, which threatened to embarrass President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

On Saturday, Mnangagwa walked behind the casket carrying Mugabe's body as it was wheeled into the centre of Harare's National Sports Stadium and placed on a podium decorated with flowers so that heads of state could say their farewells. Senior army generals and Mugabe's wife and children followed, as a brass band played.

The 60,000 seater stadium was only half-filled.

Mugabe led Zimbabwe for 37 years, from independence until he was ousted by the army in November 2017, by which time he was viewed by many at home and abroad as a power-obsessed autocrat who unleashed death squads, rigged elections and ruined the economy to keep control. He died in a Singapore hospital on Sept. 6 aged 95.

His remains will be interred in a mausoleum at the National Heroes Acre in the capital Harare in about 30 days.

On his part, Mnangagwa said Mugabe stood in defense of Africans. "We who remain shall continue to hear his rich, brave, defiant and inspiring voice ... encouraging and warning us to be vigilant and astute," Mnangagwa said in a speech.

"A giant tree of Africa has fallen. Today Africa weeps."

Earlier, Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party wanted Mugabe buried at the national shrine of heroes of the 15-year liberation war against white minority rule. But some relatives, expressing bitterness at the way former comrades ousted Mugabe, had pushed for him to be buried in his home village..

Mugabe left behind a country wrecked by hyperinflation, dollarisation and deeply entrenched corruption. But many Zimbabweans also remember him as their country's liberator from white minority rule and for broadening people's access to education and land.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta as well as long-ruling leaders from Equatorial Guinea and Congo attended, while China, Russia and Cuba were represented by officials.

Mnangagwa led heads of state in viewing Mugabe's body, which was followed by a military 21-gun salute to honour the country's first president.