World Leaders Extol Mandela Before a Crowd of Thousands
International New York Times | 10 Dec. 2013
SOWETO, South Africa — In an outpouring of praise, remembrance and
celebration, scores of leaders from around the world, including
President Obama, joined tens of thousands of South Africans in a vast
rain-swept soccer stadium here on Tuesday to pay common tribute to
Nelson Mandela, whose struggle against apartheid inspired his own
country and many far beyond its borders.
Huge cheers greeted Mr. Obama as he rose to offer a eulogy that blended a
deep personal message with a broader appeal for Mr. Mandela’s values to
survive him.
“To the people of South Africa — people of every race and every walk of
life — the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us,” the
president said. “His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your
triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your
freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.”
“It is hard to eulogize any man — to capture in words not just the facts
and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person —
their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities
that illuminate someone’s soul,” Mr. Obama said. “How much harder to do
so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, and in the
process moved billions around the world.”
With his address punctuated by applause, Mr. Obama used Mr. Mandela’s
clan name to say: “It took a man like Madiba to free not just the
prisoner, but the jailer as well; to show that you must trust others so
that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of
ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion,
generosity and truth. He changed laws, but also hearts.”
Without identifying anyone by name, Mr. Obama also seemed to criticize
despots around the world. “There are too many leaders who claim
solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate
dissent from their own people,” he said. “We will never see the likes of
Nelson Mandela again. But let me say to the young people of Africa, and
young people around the world — you can make his life’s work your own.”
Striking a deeply personal note, he went on: “Over 30 years ago, while
still a student, I learned of Mandela and the struggles in this land. It
stirred something in me. It woke me up to my responsibilities — to
others, and to myself — and set me on an improbable journey that finds
me here today. And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example,
he makes me want to be better. He speaks to what is best inside us.”
People arriving for the ceremony reached for umbrellas and raincoats as a
downpour drenched the stadium and the streets outside. While the mood
was celebratory, South Africa’s modern politics also intruded.
There were cheers for Thabo Mbeki, Mr. Mandela’s immediate successor.
But the crowd booed and whistled with displeasure when President Jacob
G. Zuma’s face appeared on the two large monitors at either end of the
stadium.
Mr. Zuma struggled against a barrage of boos, hoots and whistles as he
approached the lectern to deliver his remarks. A traditional praise
singer sought to enthuse crowd before the South African leader spoke.
But the abuse continued, and Mr. Zuma’s face on the huge screens was
soon replaced with images of Mr. Mandela as music blasted through the
speakers.
After a few minutes, Mr. Zuma began delivering his remarks to a restive
but quieting crowd. Many began leaving the stadium, streaming down
concrete ramps and into the relentless rain.
Reading from prepared remarks, Mr. Zuma praised Mr. Mandela, saying “there is no one like Madiba. He was one of a kind.”
But, seeking a second term in national elections next April, Mr. Zuma
emphasized that Mr. Mandela’s party, the African National Congress, was
not about any one leader.
“Mandela believed in collective leadership,” Mr. Zuma said. “He never
wanted to be viewed as a messiah or a saint. He recognized that all of
his achievements were a result of working with the A.N.C. collective.”
Tuesday’s ceremony drew an unprecedented crowd of global V.I.P.'s,
including at least 91 heads of state and government, celebrities like
Oprah Winfrey and the singer Bono as well as royalty. The period of
official mourning is scheduled to continue this week, with Mr. Mandela’s
body lying in state for three days in Pretoria, and a state funeral on
Sunday in his remote boyhood village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape region.
Such was the range of those who supported Mr. Mandela in death as in
life that the phalanx of dignitaries included notables from Europe to
Latin America and China.
In a gesture sure to be dissected for its symbolic and political
significance, Mr. Obama shook hands with President Raúl Castro of Cuba,
the brother of the longtime American adversary Fidel Castro. Relations
between the two countries have been less frosty of late but the Castro
brothers remain divisive figures for many Americans, especially
Cuban-Americans in Florida.
Some focused on the less celebrated mourners instead.
“This is a day for the people, not the powerful,” said Jay Naidoo, a
close confidant of Mr. Mandela and one of his early government
ministers. “What Nelson Mandela stood for most of all was solidarity
with the downtrodden of the world, and for them he is a symbol of social
justice and human rights. That is why I am saying my goodbye from the
ranks of the people.”
Shortly before the scheduled start, the stadium was roughly half full,
with most people crowding into the highest areas under a roof to shelter
from the rain. “Even heaven is crying,” one woman in the crowd
declared. “We have lost an angel.”
Many made long journeys, by bus and by train, to reach the stadium.
Others gave up waiting for buses that they said never came and instead
began the long slog in the rain to the stadium.
In spite of the memorial service, the day was not a holiday and at train
stations on the outskirts of Johannesburg most people were going to
work as if it were a normal Tuesday. Still, people continued to arrive,
bowed against the hard, slanting rain.
As the formal starting time was delayed by about an hour, family members
began to arrive, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Mr. Mandela’s
former wife, and his widow, Graça Machel. President Robert G. Mugabe of
Zimbabwe was among many African leaders, including those of Nigeria,
Uganda, both Congo states and Equatorial Guinea.
The American representation included three former presidents — Bill
Clinton, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. Hillary Rodham Clinton,
Michelle Obama and Laura Bush accompanied their husbands.
Britain and France were both represented by current and former leaders.
The secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, rose and bowed
on the V.I.P. podium to acknowledge applause from the crowd.
Cyril Ramaphosa, a former labor leader who became a wealthy entrepreneur
and, more recently, deputy leader of the governing African National
Congress, presided over the ceremony, just as he played a central role
when Mr. Mandela was released after 27 years in prison in 1990.
“His long walk is over,” Mr. Ramaphosa declared, referring to “Long Walk
to Freedom,” the title of Mr. Mandela’s autobiography. “But ours is
only beginning.”
“More than 100 countries are represented here today representing easily
billions of people around the world,” Mr. Ramaphosa said, adding that
the event was “how Nelson Mandela would have wanted to be sent off.”
“He was our teacher and our mentor and never gave up on us for our
failures,” Mr. Ramaphosa said. Repeatedly Mr. Ramaphosa appealed to some
in the crowd to stop booing political figures of whom they did not
approve.
The national memorial service came 20 years to the day after Mr. Mandela
and F.W. de Klerk, South Africa’s last white president, who negotiated
the demise of Afrikaner power, traveled together to Oslo to receive a
shared Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. de Klerk was among the dignitaries
arriving at the stadium on Tuesday for the event along with Prime
Minister David Cameron of Britain.
President François Hollande of France planned to travel on from the
ceremony to the Central African Republic, where his country has sent
troop reinforcements to try to quell unrest, news reports said.
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