ZVIMBA, Zimbabwe (AP) — A priest asked God to take pity on Robert Mugabe as the family of the longtime Zimbabwean leader buried him Saturday at his rural home. They chose a private farewell for one of Africa's most divisive figures after a weeks-long dispute with the administration that forced him from power.
"This man lives forever," declared the priest, to cries of approval. Mugabe died this month in Singapore at age 95 after leading the country for nearly four decades and being pushed into a shocking resignation as thousands danced in the streets. "I was ridiculed," a relative said Mugabe told them.
His coffin, draped in the country's flag, was carried by military pallbearers as his black-veiled wife, Grace, looked on. On display was a photo of Mugabe holding up his fist in a classic gesture of defiance, and a floral arrangement spelled out "Dad." Many mourners wore T-shirts saying "Liberator" and "Torch bearer."
Grace later stood motionless as the coffin was lowered into the grave and a choir sang "Remember me."
Mugabe, who led the bitter guerrilla war to end white-minority rule in the country then known as Rhodesia, was Zimbabwe's first leader and ruled from 1980, overseeing a years-long slide from prosperity to economic ruin and repression. He was forced by the military and ruling party to retire in late 2017 after bitter political feuding centered in part on his wife's political ambitions.
Some of Mugabe's political rivals, including opposition figures who were routinely arrested or harassed during his 37-year rule, attended the service while longtime colleagues did not. Notably absent were senior officials from the ruling party that he led for more than four decades, including during the fight for liberation.
Just a handful of people in the gathering of some 200 wore party regalia, a sign of how the bookish, combative former leader died isolated from the people he called comrades for much of his adult life.
Mugabe's family earlier had agreed to a government request to bury him at the National Heroes Acre shrine in the capital, but only after a hilltop mausoleum was built to set him apart from the rest. Then the government on Thursday abruptly announced the family had changed its mind, leaving it with scaffolding around the partially completed memorial.
While some might blame his widow for the move, it was Mugabe himself who wanted the private ceremony instead of one presided over by the people who removed him from power, Grace's sister Junior Shuvai Gumbochuma said in a speech on Saturday.