WORLD MOURNS NELSON MANDELA

WORLD MOURNS NELSON MANDELA

South Africans from all walks of life, businesspeople to nurses to the unemployed, danced and clapped and sang in the hours leading up to the memorial service, their voices echoing across the stadium as if they were cheering at a soccer match. The rich crowded together with the poor, children with the elderly, all there to remember Mandela, the former South African president and African National Congress leader  who died Thirsday at the age 95. “In his lifetime, Madiba mingled with kings, queens and presidents. At the core, he was a man of the people. A simple man,” said Gen. Thanduxolo Mandela, a family member who offered one of the first eulogies. “I am sure Madiba is smiling from above as he looks down at the multitude of diversity gathered here, for this is what he strove for — the equality of man, the brotherhood of humanity.”

Mandela’s ex-wife, Winnie Mandela, received an enormous ovation from the crowd as the oversize screens showed her entry into the stadium. So did South African President Jacob Zuma, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama. The ceremony began at noon (5 a.m. in Washington), about an hour behind schedule, when the massive crowd stood and joined a choir in the singing of the South African national anthem. Obama said Mandela’s death should inspire reflection in political leaders like himself, and in people from every nation.“There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality,” Obama said. “There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us who stand on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.”

Among the other world leaders who gave eulogies were U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and  Cuban President Raul Castro .Francois Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby team that won the 1995 World Cup, described the gathering as “very emotional, very happy, very sad, painful and reflective.”

Prof. John Kurakar