In Pictures: South Africa’s Zulu king is laid to rest

King Zwelithini was a proponent of traditional Zulu customs and the most influential South African traditional leaders.

The traditional leader of South Africa’s 12 million Zulu people, King Goodwill Zwelithini, has been laid to rest in a private ceremony on Thursday. Zwelithini, 72, died from health problems related to diabetes last Friday and he was buried in a traditional ceremony known as “ukutshalwa kweNkosi”, which is attended by only senior men of the royal family, many wearing leopard skins and colourful Zulu regalia. Reigning for more than 50 years, Zwelithini was the longest-serving monarch of the Zulu nation, the largest ethnic group of South Africa’s 60 million people. The KwaZulu-Natal province is where most of the country’s Zulus live.