Analysis - Mandela gone, South Africa must look to itself

QUNU, South Africa (Reuters) - Only a few hours after Nelson Mandela's burial, the skies over South Africa's Eastern Cape grew dark as a storm rolled in, a powerful but, according to locals, positive omen for a young democracy deprived of its founding father.

Whereas in the West lowering clouds portend trouble, in traditional South African culture they are seen as a blessing, the bearers of rain and good fortune, especially at a funeral, where they signify an elder passing peacefully into the bosom of his ancestors.