Nelson Mandela Burial Planned For December 15

South Africans erupted in song, dance and tears on Friday in public and emotional celebrations of the life of Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who bridged this country’s black-white divide and helped avert a race war.

Fellow anti-apartheid leaders like retired archbishop Desmond Tutu called for the 51 million South Africans to adhere to the values of unity and democracy that Mandela embodied. The tributes to Mandela that came from people across the spectrum showed that he had affected people deeply.

“What I liked most about Mandela was his forgiveness, his passion, his diversity, the pact of what he did,” said Ariel Sobel, a white man who was born in 1993, a year before Mandela was elected president. “I am not worried about what will happen next. We will continue as a nation. We knew this was coming. We are prepared.”

Sobel was with a crowd of people who had gathered at Mandela’s home in the leafy Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton where Mandela spent his last sickly months. A dozen doves were released into the skies and people sang tribal songs, the national anthem, God Bless Africa — the anthem of the anti-apartheid struggle — and Christian hymns.

Many wore traditional garb of Zulu, Xhosa and South Africa’s other ethnic groups. One carried a sign saying: “He will rule the universe with God.”

In Soweto, the rough and tumble black township where Mandela used to live, pockets of dancers and singers shuffled through the street, celebrating Mandela’s life. Dozens of kids held oversized pictures of the anti-apartheid icon.

“I’m sorry, I’m too emotional. The tears come too easily,” Themba Radebe, a 60-year-old who was filming the street celebration with his phone, told a reporter. He later decided to share his thoughts.

“This is a celebration of the death, because we knew he was an old man,” said Radebe, whose eyes sparkled with shallow tears. “He brought a lot of changes to our community, because I grew up in apartheid. It was a very bad situation.”

President Jacob Zuma announced that Mandela is to be buried during a state funeral in his rural home town of Qunu on Sunday, Dec. 15. A memorial service is to be held on Tuesday in FNB Stadium in Johannesburg. Mandela’s last public appearance was at the same stadium in 2010 for the closing ceremony of the soccer World Cup.

Mandela’s body will then lie in state in Pretoria for three days. Sunday marks a national day of prayer and reflection.

“We call upon all our people to gather in halls, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues and in their homes for prayer services and meditation, reflecting on the life of Madiba and his contribution to our country and the world,” Zuma said, using Mandela’s clan name.

Zuma had announced late Thursday that Mandela, who had been in and out of the hospital four times since February 2011, was dead. He was last admitted in June with a recurring lung infection from which he never recovered, though he was released in September to convalesce at home.

After midnight, a black SUV-type vehicle containing Mandela’s coffin, draped in South Africa’s flag, pulled away from Mandela’s home, escorted by military motorcycle outriders, to take the body to a military morgue in Pretoria.

In a church service in Cape Town, Tutu, who like Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, said Mandela would want South Africans themselves to be his “memorial” by adhering to the values of unity and democracy that he embodied. He recalled the early 1990s when South Africa teetered on the brink of a race war.

“All of us here in many ways amazed the world, a world that was expecting us to be devastated by a racial conflagration,” Tutu said. He recalled how Mandela helped unite South Africa as it dismantled apartheid, the cruel system of white minority rule, and prepared for all-race elections in 1994. In those elections, Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison, became South Africa’s first black president.

“God, thank you for the gift of Madiba,” said Tutu in his closing his prayer.

In Mandela’s hometown of Qunu in the wide-open spaces of the Eastern Cape province, relatives consoled each other as they mourned the death of South Africa’s most famous citizen.

Mandela was a “very human person” with a sense of humor who took interest in people around him, said F.W. de Klerk, South Africa’s last apartheid-era president. The two men negotiated the end of apartheid, finding common cause in often tense circumstances, and shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Summarizing Mandela’s legacy, de Klerk paraphrased Mandela’s own words on eNCA television: “Never and never again should there be in South Africa the suppression of anyone by another.”

On Vilakazi Street in Soweto, 26-year-old Vathiswa Nongogo brought her nearly 3-year-old daughter Konwabo to the celebratory atmosphere. The crowd was mostly black, but mourners both white and black said Mandela transcended race.

“The feeling is genuinely the same among the white people and the colors,” said Nongogo, who is black. “And the political division doesn’t appear to exist today.”

The liberation struggle icon’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, said he is strengthened by the knowledge that his grandfather is finally at rest.

“All that I can do is thank God that I had a grandfather who loved and guided all of us in the family,” Mandla Mandela said in a statement. “The best lesson that he taught all of us was the need for us to be prepared to be of service to our people.”

Helen Zille, leader of South Africa’s official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, and premier of the Western Cape, the only province not controlled by the African National Congress party, commented: “We all belong to the South African family — and we owe that sense of belonging to Madiba. That is his legacy.”

source:huffingtonpost.com

The World mourns Mandela: Photos of stunning tributes

 

The entire world is mourning the death of a great Legend, Nelson Mandela, whose funeral has been fixed to take place on the 15th of December.

Below are some stunning tributes to the Former South African Hero, across the globe.

Crowd has been gathering outside Nelson Mandela’s home in Johannesburg, where he died on Thursday evening, to pay tribute and mourn the much-loved south african leader

 

young boy poses in-front of Nelson Mandela’s statue

sowetans mourn the death of the great african hero

 

Lungi Morrison, the grand daughter of the Archbishop emeritus, Desmond Tutu, was among those who paid tribute at a memorial in London, on the steps of the South African High comission

Nelson Mandela mourned in front of the South African high commission in London

Mandela mourned in London

Farewell Madiba: the soccer world mourns the death of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela tribute photo: The big screen at the Adelaide Oval shows the tribute photo of Nelson Mandela, as they gave a minute of silence before the commencement of the ashes cricket test match between England and Australia.

Nelson Mandela’s death took over every media house. his burial is scheduled to be on Dec. 15

 

many carried the pictures of Mandela, who led the struggle of white minority rule in South Africa

Mr Mandela’s former fellow anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu paid tribute at a service in Capetown

 

Mr Mandela’s death has been marked around the world. Here passers-by pay tribute in the Chinese capital Beijing

 

Hundreds also came to pay their respects outside Mr Mandela’s home in the suburb of Houghton

 

 

Mourners were gathered outside Mr Mandela’s old home in Soweto into Friday night

 

 

a woman places candles at a statue of nelson mandela at Parliament Square in London.

 

crowd chant as they mourn the world legend, Nelson Mandela

 

Crowd sang songs from the time of struggle against apartheid

 

 

the marquee at the historic Apollo theater in New York, announces the death of nelson mandela.

 

A woman wearing a South African national flag adjusts a tribute poster to Nelson Mandela outside the South African embassy near Trafalgar Square on December 6, 2013, in London.

 

An Indian couple places flowers on a sand sculpture in tribute to Mandela, made by sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik, at the Golden Sea Beach in Puri.

 

Tributes are placed at the foot of a statue to Mandela in Parliament Square on December 6 in London.

 

Pakistani schoolchildren hold lamps during a memorial tribute to Mandela, in Karachi on December 6.

 

 

Flowers and tributes lie at the base of the plinth bearing a bust of Mandela in central London on December 6. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II said Friday she was “deeply saddened” by the death of Nelson Mandela, adding that he had “worked tirelessly for the good of his country.”

 

The French national flag flies at half-mast on the Elysee presidential palace in Paris as a tribute to Mandela, who died the day before, as France hosts today a summit for peace and safety in Africa.

 

People pay tribute to Madiba at Naval Hill in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He was the Father of the Nation, Tata Madiba.

 

College students put flowers before a photo of Mandela to pay tribute to him on their campus in Hengyang, central China’s Hunan Province.

 

People gather to honor Madiba at Nelson Mandela Square, on December 6 in Houghton, Johannesburg.

 

European flags fly at half-mast at the Berlaymont European Union Commission building in Brussels.

 

Overnight, mourners left candles and flowers as tributes near a statue of Mandela outside the South African Embassy in Washington, DC.

Nelson Mandela Dies at 95: World leaders pays tribute

Nelson Mandela, the revered South African anti-apartheid icon who spent 27 years in prison, led his country to democracy and became its first black president, died Thursday at home. He was 95. “He is now resting,” said South African President Jacob Zuma. “He is now at peace.” “Our nation has lost its greatest son,” he continued. “Our people have lost a father.” A state funeral will be held, and Zuma called for mourners to conduct themselves with “the dignity and respect” that Mandela personified.

The icon of the anti-apartheid movement and international human rights leader died Thursday. He had been receiving medical treatment for the last three years and for the last six months had been critically ill. He was 95 years old.

“Wherever we are in the country, wherever we are in the world, let us reaffirm his vision of a society… in which none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another,” he said as tributes began pouring in from across the world.

US President Obama said his first political action was an anti-apartheid protest inspired by Mandela, who “achieved more than could be expected of any man.” “I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example Nelson Mandela set,” he said.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: “A great light has gone out in the world. “Nelson Mandela was a hero of our time. I’ve asked for the flag at No10 to be flown at half mast.” In a statement outside Downing Street, Mr Cameron said the former president’s life had “moved millions”.

Though he was in power for only five years, Mandela was a figure of enormous moral influence the world over – a symbol of revolution, resistance and triumph over racial segregation. He inspired a generation of activists, left celebrities and world leaders star-struck, won the Nobel Peace Prize and raised millions for humanitarian causes. South Africa is still bedeviled by challenges, from class inequality to political corruption to AIDS. And with Mandela’s death, it has lost a beacon of optimism.

In his jailhouse memoirs, Mandela wrote that even after spending so many years in a Spartan cell on Robben Island – with one visitor a year and one letter every six months – he still had faith in human nature. “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion,” he wrote in “Long Walk to Freedom.” ,“People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Nelson Mandela in jail

Mandela retired from public life in 2004 with the half-joking directive, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you,” and had largely stepped out of the spotlight, spending much of his time with family in his childhood village.

His health had been fragile in recent years. He had spent almost three months in a hospital in Pretoria after being admitted in June for a recurring lung infection.

He was released on Sept. 1 and officials had said only that he was responding to treatment until a flurry of activity outside his Johannesburg home Thursday evening, followed by the official announcement of his death a short time later.

In his later years, Mandela was known to his countrymen simply as Madiba, the name of his tribe and a mark of great honor. But when he was born on July 18, 1918, he was named Rolihlahla, which translated roughly – and prophetically – to “troublemaker.”

Mandela was nine when his father died, and he was sent from his rural village to the provincial capital to be raised by a fellow chief. The first member of his family to get a formal education, he went to boarding school and then enrolled in South Africa’s elite Fort Hare University, where his activism unfurled with a student boycott.

As a young law scholar, he joined the resurgent African National Congress just a few years before the National Party – controlled by the Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch and French settlers – came to power on a platform of apartheid, in which the government enforced racial segregation and stripped non-whites of economic and political power.

As an ANC leader, Mandela advocated peaceful resistance against government discrimination and oppression – until 1961, when he launched a military wing called Spear of the Nation and a campaign of sabotage.

The next year, he was arrested and soon hit with treason charges. At the opening of his trial in 1964, he said his adoption of armed struggle was a last resort born of bloody crackdowns by the government.

“Fifty years of non-violence had brought the African people nothing but more and more repressive legislation and fewer and few rights,” he said from the dock.

“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

He was sentenced to life in prison and sent to Robben Island. As inmate No. 466/64, he slept on the floor of a six-foot-wide cell, did hard labor in a quarry, organized fellow prisoners – and earned a law degree by correspondence.

As the years passed, his incarceration drew ever more attention, with intensifying cries for his release as a global anti-apartheid movement gained traction. Songs were dedicated to him and 600 million people watched the Free Mandela concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1988.

In 1985, he turned down the government’s offer to free him if he renounced armed struggle against apartheid. It wasn’t until South African President P.W. Botha had a stroke and was replaced by F.W. de Klerk in 1989 that the stage was set for his release.

After a ban on the ANC was repealed, a whiter-haired Mandela walked out prison before a jubilant crowd and told a rally in Cape Town that the fight was far from over.

“Our struggle has reached a decisive moment,” he said. “We have waited too long for our freedom. We can no longer wait.”

Over the next two years, Mandela proved himself a formidable negotiator as he pushed South Africa toward its first multiracial elections amid tension and violence. He and de Klerk were honored with the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

When the elections were held in April 1994, the ex-prisoner became the next president and embarked on a mission of racial reconciliation, government rebuilding and economic rehabilitation.

A year into his tenure, with racial tensions threatening to explode into civil war, Mandela orchestrated an iconic, unifying moment: He donned the green jersey of the Springboks rugby team – beloved by whites, despised by blacks – to present the World Cup trophy to the team captain while the stunned crowd erupted in cheers of “Nelson! Nelson!”

He chose to serve only one five-year term – during which he divorced his second wife, Winnie, a controversial activist, and married his third, Graca, the widow of the late president of Mozambique

After leaving politics, he concentrated on his philanthropic foundation. He began speaking out on AIDS, which had ravaged his country and which some critics said he had not made a priority as president.

When he officially announced he was leaving public life in 2004, it signaled he was slowing down, but he still made his presence known. For his 89th birthday, he launched a “council of elders,” statesmen and women from around the world who would promote peace. For his 90th, he celebrated at a star-studded concert in London’s Hyde Park.

As he noted in 2003, “If there is anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.”

In April, de Klerk was asked on the BBC if he feared that Mandela’s eventual death would expose fissures in South Africa that his grandfatherly presence had kept knitted together.

De Klerk said that Madiba would be just as unifying a force in death.

“When Mandela goes, it will be a moment when all South Africans put away their political differences, take hands, and will together honor maybe the biggest South African that has ever lived,” he said.

The ANC called him “a colossus.”

“Madiba loved South Africa,” it said in a statement.

“We recall the strength of his fist punching the air as he stepped out of prison after 27 years; and his sternness during the negotiations for the freedom of our beloved country. We celebrate his ever-present smile, the cheerful Madiba jive, his love for children and great respect for the women of this country.

The large African Boabab, who loved Africa as much as he loved South Africa, has fallen. Its trunk and seeds will nourish the earth for decades to come.”

I always prayed that this day would never come. He has taught me alot through his autobiography “the long walk to freedom”. I would seriously miss you, Nelson Mandela.

May his soul rest in Perfect Peace.

Pope: Pray for abducted nuns in Syria

Pope Francis today urged the people to pray for 12 nuns abducted from a Greek Orthodox Monastery in Syria. for more details click on the link below

http://cnnmobile.com/primary/wk_fullarticle?articleId=cnn/2013/12/04/world/meast/syria-civil-war&category=intl&pageSize=10