African leaders gather for funeral of Namibia's 'founding father' Sam Nujoma

By Siyabonga Sishi and Sfundo Parakozov

African leaders past and present gathered in Namibia on Saturday to bury the country's "founding father" Sam Nujoma, who challenged colonialism and a military occupation by South Africa's racist white minority government.

Dignitaries including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, former President Thabo Mbeki and ex-Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete attended the funeral of Nujoma, who rose from herding cattle as a boy to lead the sparsely-populated, mostly desert southern African country on March 21, 1990.

"We fought under your command, ... won the liberation struggle, and forever removed apartheid colonialism from the face of Namibia," President Nangolo Mbumba said in a speech.

His coffin draped in the red, green and blue national flag, Nujoma was laid to rest - two weeks after his death at the age of 95 - at a North Korean-built war memorial spire called Heroes' Acre.

The monument honours those who fought for independence from genocidal German colonialism and later - after Germany lost the territory in World War I - South African occupation.

Nujoma served from 1990 to 2005 and sought to project himself as a unifying leader bridging political divides.

However, he faced criticism over his intolerance of critical media coverage, diatribes against homosexuality and over the 1998 constitutional amendment allowing him to run for a third term.