US President Barack Obama led world tributes on Tuesday to Nelson Mandela, hailing him as 'a giant of history' at a rain-soaked memorial attended by tens of thousands of South Africans united in proud, noisy celebration. Obama was one of close to 100 world leaders at the event in Soweto's World Cup stadium, where songs of praise and revolution, many harking back to the apartheid era that Mandela helped condemn to history, echoed down from the dancing crowds in the stands.
In a call to action for a better world, US president Barack Obama asked leaders and individuals to take personal responsibility for ensuring peace and freedom across the globe, by following the example of Nelson Mandela.
“Madiba’s passing is rightly a time of mourning and a time to celebrate his heroic life. But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time of self-reflection. With honesty, regardless of our station or circumstances, we must ask: ‘How well have I applied his lessons to my own life?’ It is a question I ask myself as a man and a president.”
Perhaps speaking as much to his fellow world leaders on the stage behind him, as too the cheering crowd in front, he went on: “Around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger, and disease; run-down schools, and few prospects for the future. Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs; and are still persecuted for what they look like, or how they worship, or who they love.
“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. 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.”
It was a speech worth of the memory of a world icon of peace, but it might be met with some cynicism in those countries where Obama’s rhetoric is perceived to not always been backed by deed. Before his speech, Obama made his way through the gallery of world leaders in attendance, greeting many of them. He left as soon as possible after he finished speaking.
The president of India Pranab Mukherjee has also addressed the service. The start of his speech was interrupted by singing from a section of the crowd. However he underlined the shared historical links between India and South Africa in the struggle for freedom, including the legacy of Gandhi.
The next major speech is South African president, Jacob Zuma, who has received a cool reception from some sections of the crowd. The organisers are trying to move the service on as fast as possible because of the continuing rain and the tiring crowd, some of who have been present since early morning.
Paul Stober reports from Johannesburg for Gulf News
Rain is often considered a blessing. It has been steadily pouring in Johannesburg, where the national memorial service for Nelson Mandela is being held.
The main venue for of the service, FNB Stadium, where Mandela first addressed South Africa as a free man in 1990, has slowly been filling since very early morning. Strict security arrangements and some problems with the official transport seems to have slowed the flow of people to the stadium. Satellite venues across Johannesburg have remained subdued.
Besides the rain, Johannesburg, usually a fast-paced city, has also been slowed by road closures and the movement of the heads of state and government that are expected to attend the service. Convoys with flashing blue lights and sirens have been heading towards the stadium, where at least 91 heads of states and other dignitaries were received in a sheltered entrance. They are being formally welcomed throughout the ceremony. Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, received a special cheer, to the likely discomfort of former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who is also in the audience. US president Barack Obama was also loudly cheered.
Heads of state or government from the Middle East, including the UAE, Afghanistan, Jordan and Palestine, have been acknowledge or thanked, so far.
The service started late, but those in the stadium kept up their spirits by singing the freedom songs that are a part of every gathering where his life has been celebrated. Cyril Ramaphosa ANC deputy president, is regularly having to call for the singing to be toned down, so that the speakers can be heard. Speakers are often struggling to make themselves heard and keep the attention of the crowd.
After interdominational prayers, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, paid a tribute on behalf of the international community. While the eulogies and prayers at the service have praising a man revered as an international icon, elsewhere those who were closes to him in government and prison, have been regaling people with stories of someone who was all too human – both as a politician and an ordinary man. As much as he was a peace-maker, he was a militant revolutionary; as much as he was a reconciler, he could be a calculating politician.
Perhaps the most touching tribute so far, has been from his grandchildren, who read a poem which mentioned how he embodied the best of South African liberation leaders, like Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu - and the country.
Paul Stober reports from Johannesburg for Gulf News
Massive line-up for hastily arranged Mandela memorial
Barack Obama will speak alongside Cuban leader Raul Castro at the hastily arranged memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
The pair were revealed as two of 19 speakers at a service which will be attended by David Cameron and his three prime ministerial predecessors – Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Sir John Major.
Mandela’s extraordinary political reach has resulted in 91 national leaders from every corner of the globe announcing their intention to attend the event.
As well as speeches from Obama and Castro - the brother of former leader Fidel – Soweto’s 95,000-capacity FNB stadium will be addressed by South African president Jacob Zuma, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, China vice-president Li Yuanchao, and the presidents of Brazil, Namibia and India. There will also be speeches from five members of Mandela’s family. Among those expected to attend are former US presidents George W Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
But there were growing concerns over the event’s safety last night. Workers labored late into the night building the stage, installing security measures and cutting the pitch’s grass, while a security manager was recruiting event staff from a car parked outside the stadium.
South African politicians brushed aside concerns about the event's safety, but one admitted officials “can’t guess” how many people will try to attend.
Mandela memorial begins
Tens of thousands of voices soared over Soweto's Soccer City stadium Tuesday in a moving rendition of South Africa's national anthem at the start of a memorial service for peace icon Nelson Mandela.
Mourners from South Africa and abroad, nearly 100 heads of state, royalty and religious leaders, gathered in the rain at the venue where the man known as the father of the nation made his last major public appearance in 2010.
Mandela's widow makes first public appearance
01.43pm
SOWETO: Nelson Mandela's widow Graca Machel on Tuesday made her first public appearance since his death as she arrived helped along by friends at the Soweto stadium for his memorial.
Wearing a black coat and dress, the Mozambican human rights campaigner linked arms as she made her way slowly into the bowels of the building.
Machel barely left her husband's bedside in the final six months of his life.
She maintained a near round-the-clock bedside vigil during the 84 days Mandela spent in a Pretoria hospital and the subsequent three months he spent at home before he died on December 5.
Putin compares Mandela to Gandhi, Solzhenitsyn
01.39pm
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday paid tribute to Nelson Mandela, comparing him to Mahatma Gandhi and Soviet dissident and Nobel prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
"Without doubt he was a great friend of our people," Putin told reporters as he visited the South African embassy in Moscow to honour the memory of the anti-apartheid icon and Russia's "great friend".
The Russian strongman signed a condolence book and called Mandela "a great humanist" who can be compared to Gandhi and Solzhenitsyn, who was jailed by the Soviet authorities.
"It was our country - the Soviet Union - that in the most active manner supported South Africa and other countries in Africa in their fight against racial segregation, their fight for justice and democracy," Putin told reporters.
Former jailers, prisoners, unite to honour Mandela
01.09pm
Nelson Mandela's former jailers and fellow prisoners united in his memory Tuesday across the water from Robben Island where he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.
Ex-prison guard Christo Brand was among some 200 people packed into an auditorium at the ferry departure point - known as "Nelson Mandela Gateway" - to the island off Cape Town which is now a museum and top tourist site.
Mandela had been the same person as president as he was in prison, said Brand, who struck up an unlikely and enduring friendship with the icon he met as a teenage guard when Mandela was 60.
While saddened by Mandela's death, Brand said, he also felt relief "because I know that he died in peace and that is what he was fighting for".
A single candle flickered and images of Mandela were displayed on a big screen at the departure point, where long queues of tourists waited to board a ferry to the island.
"He's touched us all. He meets hate with love," said tearful Norwegian tourist Lars Dahl, 62, who attended the memorial with his children after visiting the island. "We're here in Cape Town and we felt it was important to honour him and his memory and thank him."
Former Robben Island inmate Lionel Davis hailed Mandela's contribution to reconciliation among South Africa's former political enemies. Even in prison, Mandela had started reaching out to the Afrikaner nation which jailed him under its harsh apartheid racial laws.
Mourners in South Africa flock to Mandela memorial
12.54pm
Joyous, singing South Africans gathered in the rain Tuesday to honor Nelson Mandela at a massive memorial service that is expected to draw some 100 heads of state and other luminaries, united in tribute to a global symbol of reconciliation.
Crowds converged on FNB Stadium in Soweto, the Johannesburg township that was a stronghold of support for the anti-apartheid struggle that Mandela embodied as a prisoner of white rule for 27 years and then during a peril-fraught transition to the all-race elections that made him president.
"I would not have the life I have today if it was not for him," said Matlhogonolo Mothoagae, a postgraduate marketing student who arrived hours before the stadium gates opened. "He was jailed so we could have our freedom."
Rohan Laird, the 54-year-old CEO of a health insurance company, said he grew up during white rule in a "privileged position" as a white South African and that Mandela helped whites work through a burden of guilt.
"His reconciliation allowed whites to be released themselves," Lair said. "I honestly don't think the world will see another leader like Nelson Mandela."
Workers were still welding at a VIP area as the first spectators arrived amid an enormous logistical challenge of organizing the memorial for Mandela, who died Dec. 5 in his Johannesburg home at the age of 95.
Hundreds of leaders, celebrities to attend
12.47pm
While hundreds of world leaders and celebrities are expected to attend the memorial today, here’s a short list of those confirmed:
• Barack Obama
• Bill Clinton
• Jimmy Carter
• British Prime Minister David Cameron
• French President Francois Hollande
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai
• Goodluck Jonathan (Nigeria)
• Pranab Mukherjee (India)
• Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey
• Singer-activist Bono
• British billionaire Richard Branson
• Musician Peter Gabriel
Obama arrives for Mandela memorial
12.27pm
US President Barack Obama landed in South Africa early Tuesday. Besides Obama, eulogies were to be delivered by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao and Cuban President Raul Castro.
Other speakers include the presidents of Brazil, Namibia and India, as well as tributes from Mandela's grandchildren. South African President Jacob Zuma was to give the keynote address.
Tuesday was the 20th anniversary of the day when Mandela and South Africa's last apartheid-era president, F.W. de Klerk, received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to bring peace to their country.
Mandela said in his acceptance speech at the time: "We live with the hope that as she battles to remake herself, South Africa will be like a microcosm of the new world that is striving to be born."
The sounds of horns and cheering filled the stadium ahead of the ceremony, due to start at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT, 4 a.m. EST). Rain sent those who arrived early into the stadium's covered upper deck, and many of the lower seats were empty.
People blew on vuvuzelas, the plastic horn that was widely used during the World Cup soccer tournament in 2010, and sang songs from the era of the anti-apartheid struggle decades ago. "It is a moment of sadness celebrated by song and dance, which is what we South Africans do," said Xolisa Madywabe, CEO of a South African investment firm.
The 95,000-capacity soccer venue was also the spot where Mandela made his last public appearance at the closing ceremony of the World Cup. After the memorial, his body will lie in state for three days at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, once the seat of white power, before burial Sunday in his rural childhood village of Qunu in Eastern Cape Province.
Police promised tight security, locking down roads kilometers (miles) around the stadium. However, the first crowds entered the stadium without being searched.
John Allen, a 48-year-old pastor from the U.S. state of Arkansas, said he once met Mandela at a shopping center in South Africa with his sons.
"He joked with my youngest and asked if he had voted for Bill Clinton," Allen said. "He just zeroed in on my 8-year-old for the three to five minutes we talked."
World unites for Mandela
12.05pm
SOWETO: Tens of thousands of South Africans converged in sorrow, celebration and pride Tuesday on Soweto's World Cup stadium, to sit side-by-side with presidents, priests and queens at a memorial service for unifying global icon Nelson Mandela.
Close to 100 world leaders were among 80,000 people expected to cram into the venue in Soweto - the crucible of Mandela's anti-apartheid struggle - to bid farewell to a man whose life story earned uncommon universal respect.
Despite the profound sense of national sorrow triggered by Mandela's death last Thursday, the mood was upbeat, with people determined to celebrate the memory of one of the 20th century's towering political figures.
"He's God given, he's God taken. We will never stop to cherish him," said Shahim Ismail, who took a day off from the sports academy he runs in Johannesburg to attend the event.
With access offered on a first-comer basis, crowds began gathering before daybreak and, as the gates opened, they swarmed into the stadium, looking for the best vantage point on the sloped terracing.
Wrapped in the South African flag or yellow-green coloured shawls printed with the slogan "Mandela Forever," they danced and sang - oblivious to a persistent morning drizzle.
"This is once in your life. This is history," said Noma Kova, 36. "I didn't want to watch this on TV."
Many of the songs flowing from the terraces harked back to the apartheid-era struggle, but the atmosphere was one of inclusion.
News of Mandela's death at his home in Johannesburg resonated around the world, triggering a wave of loving admiration from political and religious leaders, some of whom agree on little else.
Global rivalries put on pause
The presidents of the United States and Cuba were among those sharing the memorial stage, pausing rivalries that date back to the Cold War to pay tribute as millions around the world looked on.
The Indian and Brazilian presidents will also deliver eulogies, reflecting the extraordinary global reach, popularity and influence of one of the 20th century's best-loved statesmen.
Obama and his wife Michelle flew in on Air Force One early in the morning, together with former president George W. Bush and his wife Laura.
Two other ex-presidents, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, were arriving separately.
The memorial event was part of an extended state funeral that will culminate in Mandela's burial on Sunday in the rural village of Qunu where he spent his early childhood.
Security was tight around the Soweto stadium, with military helicopters flying overhead and marshals helping police to keep the crowds moving.
Four of Mandela's grandchildren were set to speak for his family.
Although Mandela had been critically ill for months, the announcement of his death was a body blow for this recently reborn nation.
He had been out of public life for more than a decade, but South Africans looked to his unassailable moral authority as a comforting constant in a time of uncertain social and economic change.
'He really was like a magician'
On the eve of the memorial, Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu described Mandela as a "magician" who conjured a united nation out of a country teetering on the brink of civil war.
"Everybody was saying we would go up in flames," he said.
"He really was like a magician with a magic wand, turning us into this glorious, multi-coloured rainbow people."
A single candle was lit Monday in Mandela's tiny prison cell on Robben Island, where he spent the harshest of his 27 years in apartheid jails, before emerging to lead his divided country into a multi-racial democracy.
On Monday, his eldest daughter Makaziwe Mandela told how her father spent a "wonderful" week surrounded by family before he died.
"The children were there, the grandchildren were there ... so we are always around him, even at the last moment," she told the BBC.
Ahead of the burial in Qunu, Mandela's body will lie in state for three days from Wednesday in the amphitheatre of the Union Buildings in Pretoria where he was sworn in as president in 1994.
Each morning, his coffin will be borne through the streets of the capital in a funeral cortege, to give as many people as possible the chance to pay their final respects.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande and Afghan President Hamid Karzai were all on the state funeral guest list.
Africa was represented by Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan and more than a dozen other heads of state and government.
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and singer-activist Bono, as well as British billionaire Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel were expected to be among the celebrity mourners.
In the Soweto stadium, a radiant Musa Mbele, his clothes drenched by the rain declined the offer of an umbrella.
"If he was able to stay behind bars for 27 years for us, what is one day, just one rain-drenched day?" he said.
