EMPANGENI - As the family of the late Ambassador Nathi Mthethwa prepares to bring his remains home from France, cultural experts say the journey is not just physical but it’s deeply spiritual.
The 58-year-old diplomat and former cabinet minister died at a hotel in Paris, and the circumstances surrounding his death remain under police investigation.
His family is traveling to France to repatriate his body in line with Zulu custom, before he's laid to rest.
READ | Mthethwa's family hopes to bury late ambassador on Sunday
Cultural expert Professor Musa Xulu told eNCA that this process bares great cultural and traditional significance because it has to do with reuniting a 'wondering' soul back to its body.
" This is where culture and religion meet to make meaning of life. The belief system is that wherever you die your spirit rests near you. It will wonder around because it does not know whats has happened. It becomes disoriented and therefore needs to be reoriented and untied with the body," Xulu explains.
Critical during this process is a tree branch (often a Buffalo Thorn tree) which used to collect the spirit of a deceased person and guiding it to their to their final resting place, Xulu says.
He says in such a situation the Mthethwa family will have to revisit the scene of the incident.