Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, right, Nelson Mandela's former wife, puts her around Nelson Mandela's widow Graca Machel as they wait for the arrival of the former South African president's casket at the Mthatha airport in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, December 14, 2013. AP Photo/Siphiwe Sibeko, Pool Former South African President Nelson Mandela's widow Graca Machel, right, and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Nelson Mandela's former wife, wipe their tears as the former president's casket arrives at Mthatha Airport in Mthatha, South Africa, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013. The funeral service for Nelson Mandela will be held in his home town of Qunu on Sunday. AP Photo/Kopano_Tlape, CGIS QUNU, South Africa (AP) - Nelson Mandela came home Saturday. A hearse carrying Mandela's body drove into his hometown in rural South Africa ahead of burial Sunday, returning the country's peacemaker to the place where he had always wanted to die. It was here in Qunu that Mandela roamed the hills and tended livestock as a youth, absorbing lessons about discipline and consensus from traditional chiefs. From here he embarked on a journey - the "long walk to freedom" as he put it - that thrust him to the forefront of black South Africans' struggle for equal rights that resonated around the world. As motorcyclists in uniform and armored personnel carriers escorted the vehicle carrying Mandela's casket to the family compound, people lining the route sang, applauded and, in some cases, wept. When I saw the hearse passing, I couldn't hold my excitement. I felt like I was holding him by the hand," said Norma Khobo. It was very exciting, I saw him! The vehicle carrying Mandela's casket, covered with a national flag, arrived at the family compound under cloudy skies at 4 p.m. It was accompanied by an enormous convoy of police, military and other vehicles, and a military helicopter hovered overhead. According to Xhosa tribal tradition, Mandela was honored as a leader by placing a leopard skin on the coffin, replacing the flag. Mandela's journey started Saturday with pomp and ceremony at an air base in the capital before being flown aboard a military plane to this simple village in the wide-open spaces of eastern South Africa. At the Mthatha airport Mandela's casket was welcomed by a military guard and placed in a convoy for the 32 kilometer (20 mile) voyage toward Qunu. Residents and people who had traveled for hours thronged a road leading to Qunu, singing and dancing as Mandela T-shirts were handed out. We got up this morning at 2 a.m. and drove from Port Elizabeth - it's about seven hours - and we got here now. We're waiting on to show our last respects to Madiba," said Ebrahim Jeftha, using Mandela's clan name. Mandela's widow, Graca Machel, and his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, tearfully embraced at Mthatha airport when the casket arrived. Mandela had been imprisoned for 27 years for opposing racist apartheid and emerged in 1990 to forge a new democratic South Africa by promoting forgiveness and reconciliation. He became president in 1994 after South Africa's first all-race democratic elections. When Mandela's body arrived at Mthatha airport soldiers in full dress regalia, male and female, were stationed on foot on either side of the road as cows grazed nearby. Local residents lined the route, shielding themselves from the sun with umbrellas. There was a surprise announcement in the plans for Sunday's funeral in Mandela's home village of Qunu as retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he would not attend because he had not been accredited as a clergyman. Much as I would have loved to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it would have been disrespectful to Tata to gatecrash what was billed as a private family funeral. Had I or my office been informed that I would be welcome there is no way on earth that I would have missed it," Tutu said. "He's an important person and I hope ways can be found for him to be there," Maharaj said. In Qunu, residents expressed deep affection for their beloved native son. "Long live the spirit of Nelson Mandela," chanted a crowd on a highway near Mandela's compound. "My president," they sang. There were also old songs of the anti-apartheid struggle. "Release Mandela from prison," went the chorus of one. Many people carried small national flags or banners with a smiling image of Mandela. Periodically, police and other official vehicles passed by, heading to the compound. Khanyisa Qatolo, 28, was born in Qunu and attended children's Christmas parties hosted by Mandela at his home when she was a child in the 1990s. "I remember his smile," she said. I miss his smile. Qatolo said she was disappointed that local residents would be unable to go to Mandela's funeral, in line with local custom, and had instead been asked by officials to view the final rites on big video screens in the area. "The people of the community, they should be there, supporting the family," she said. I feel bad not to go there. Milly Viljoen, 43, drove 12 hours through the night with a friend to stand on the roadside overlooking Mandela's compound in Qunu. "'It's befitting to see him to his final resting place," she said. Viljoen, a student activist during apartheid, first saw Mandela when he appeared before an enthralled crowd in Cape Town after he was released in 1990. She met him later when he visited the township school where she was teaching. She said: "You couldn't help but love the man and be touched and hang onto his every word." Gregory Katz in Johannesburg contributed to this report.