[In South Africa, where Mandela rose from prisoner to president,
crowds gathered to sing and dance outside his home in Houghton, an upscale
Johannesburg neighborhood, where he died with his family beside him. Makeshift
tributes of candles, flowers and photographs were piled against trees and
buildings. In Soweto — the home to some of the worst apartheid-era strife —
black and white South Africans joined hands in mourning.]
JOHANNESBURG — Flags across several continents fell to half staff early Friday,
and South Africans poured into the streets at daybreak in mourning for Nelson
Mandela, a liberator whose life spanned nearly a century and whose model
for dignity and peace-making was admired across the world.
The death
Thursday of Mandela, 95, spurred the rarest of outpourings — one nearly
universal and unanimous, as South African President Jacob Zuma announced a
national week of mourning before a state funeral is held on Dec. 15.
Mandela’s face appeared on newspaper
front pages from Berlin to Beirut, often with just a few somber words
and the years of his life: 1918-2013. His death spurred social media tributes
in the United States and China.
In South Africa, where Mandela rose from prisoner to president,
crowds gathered to sing and dance outside his home in Houghton, an upscale
Johannesburg neighborhood, where he died with his family beside him. Makeshift
tributes of candles, flowers and photographs were piled against trees and
buildings. In Soweto — the home to some of the worst apartheid-era strife —
black and white South Africans joined hands in mourning.
Crowds also congregated in a mall in Sandton, where a huge statue
of Mandela stands in a square named after him. Mourners placed bouquets of
flowers and notes near the statue. South Africans gathered in Pretoria, the
seat of government, to remember him as well.
Media outlets in South Africa reported that Mandela’s body had
been transported to a military hospital in Pretoria. There, it will most likely
be embalmed and prepared for a public memorial service.
Zuma said Friday that a memorial service would be held Tuesday at
FNB Stadium in Johannesburg. Mandela’s body will lie in state in Pretoria from
Dec. 11 through Dec. 13 before he is buried in Qunu, his rural birthplace, two
days later.
“The messages we have received since last night have heartened and
overwhelmed us,” said Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, on Friday, the first
statement from the Mandela family since the death, Agence France-Presse
reported. “He is an embodiment of strength, struggle and survival, principles
that are cherished by humanity,” he said.
South Africans learned of Mandela’s death late Thursday local
time, when Zuma said in an address that the nation’s “greatest son” was “now at
peace.” He referred to Mandela as Madiba, his clan name and a term of
affection.
On Friday, Zuma said that “we’ll always love Madiba for teaching
us that it is possible to overcome hatred and anger in order to build a new
nation and a new society.”
Though Mandela had been absent from public life for several years
as he battled illness, his death spurred rich
tributes from around the world.
President
Obama, who like Mandela was his country’s first black president, said: “Today
he’s gone home, and we’ve lost one of the most influential, courageous and
profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth.
He no longer belongs to us; he belongs to the ages.”
Obama ordered U.S. flags flown at half-staff until sunset Monday
to honor Mandela.
Some South Africans broke into tears describing Mandela’s importance
in televised interviews.
“We collectively claim him as the father of our nation,” retired
Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu, a close friend of Mandela’s and a fellow fighter
against apartheid, told reporters in Cape Town. “What’s going to happen to us
now that our father has died?”
Some analysts have worried for years about a splintering
of South Africa in the wake of Mandela’s death, since the country is
still riven with problems, including a youth unemployment rate near 50 percent
and one of the world’s highest income disparities. The reality of multiracial
democracy has proved harder and far less equal than many expected when it
arrived in 1994, but Mandela always scoffed at the notion that his country
would face special challenges after his death.
Longtime newscaster Mathatha Tsedu said on a national news
channel, “This is a man who had no unfulfilled missions.”
Among Mandela’s global admirers who paid
tribute to him Friday was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who wrote on Twitter
that he was an “unconquerable soul.”
The New York Stock Exchange observed a moment of silence for
Mandela on Friday morning shortly before its opening bell.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a letter of condolence to Zuma,
saying China will remember Mandela’s devotion to “human progress.”
By 10:22 p.m. Friday in Beijing, the number of comments related to
Mandela reached 491,364 on Sina Weibo, the Chinese microblogging Web site.
In public remarks at a women’s forum in Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi,
the Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner, said Mandela was a “great human being who
raised the standard of humanity.”
The Indian government declared five days of state mourning for
Mandela. Both houses of the Indian Parliament adjourned for the day to honor a
man who had embraced the principals of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi and
who once said he had “followed the [nonviolent] Gandhian strategy for as long
as I could.”
“This is as much India’s loss as South Africa’s,” Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh tweeted. “He was a true Gandhian.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in a letter
to Zuma, expressed his “great sorrow and deep grief,” adding that Mandela
“gave meaning and spirit to the long road toward liberty gloriously.” The
Tehran City Council said it plans to name a street after him.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a condolence note to Zuma
that “having endured difficult sufferings, Mandela remained faithful to the
ideals of humanism and justice until the end of his life.”
Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev told the Interfax news
agency Friday: “He was an amazing, clever, and talented statesman. He told me
many times that the perestroika in the U.S.S.R. did a lot to help his country
get rid of apartheid.” He referred to his political restructuring movement,
which contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev said
Mandela set “a great example for thinking people.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Mandela’s death was a “great
loss to South Africans and the whole of humanity.” He said in a video tribute
that Mandela was “an icon of our time, for man’s dignity, equality and freedom,
a selfless human being, who struggled not only for the black South Africans
against apartheid, but for the dignity of all of us.”
Egyptian President Adly Mansour declared a three-day mourning
period. He said in a statement: “Leaders like Nelson Mandela, Gamal Abdel
Nasser and the African forefathers who struggled for freedom and independence
will forever be a source of inspiration to people and an example to lead by. He
will remain in the hearts and minds of Egyptians as one of the most prominent
symbols of national struggle in the modern world.”
Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei tweeted: “Nelson Mandela: ‘Let
freedom reign.’ Humanity has lost its greatest son.”
Cuba’s ruling Communist authorities ordered a national day of
mourning, called Mandela a “model revolutionary” and broadcast photos and
videos of him embracing Fidel Castro during a visit to the island in 1991.
Mandela had credited Cuba’s Cold War-era military interventions in
Africa in the 1970s and 1980s with helping to defeat apartheid. Cuban troops
fought directly against South African forces during the civil war in Angola,
and Mandela said that news of Cuban battlefield victories reached him in his
prison cell.
There was no immediate statement on his death from the ailing
Castro, 87.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is waging a brutal civil war
that began as a peaceful uprising against his dictatorial rule, said Friday
that Mandela’s fight for freedom and justice should provide a lesson for the
world’s oppressors. The statement was immediately met with derision from Syrian
opposition activists and commentators.
“His history of struggle has become an inspiration to all the
vulnerable peoples of the world,” Assad said in a statement. He said Mandela
would continue to be “a symbol of patience, resilience and liberation.”
Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), issuing one
of the countless
statements prepared by politicians during Mandela’s months of
declining health, said, “President Mandela’s life is the closest thing we have
to proof of God.”
Mandela’s death comes amid reminders of his many sacrifices,
depicted in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” a biopic based on his best-selling
autobiography. Britain’s Prince William was attending the London premiere of
the movie as the news spread across the world. “We were just reminded of what
an extraordinary and inspiring man Nelson Mandela was,” the tuxedo-clad prince
said.
Harlan reported from Seoul. Birnbaum reported from Berlin. Simon
Denyer in Beijing, Will Englund in Moscow, Jason Rezaian in Tehran, Annie Gowen
in New Delhi and Erin Cunningham in Cairo contributed to this report.
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