The largest gathering of heads of state and government officials ever on African soil took place at the FNB Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday for the memorial service of Nelson Mandela.
Close to 100 heads of state and former presidents attended the service, which was shown on big screens at three overflow stadiums — the Orlando, the Dobsonville and the Rand in South Africa — and watched by millions of people globally.
Some commentators suggested that the memorial service could only be compared to the state funeral for Jordan's King Hussein in 1999, which gathered royals and world leaders.
However, other commentators said the sheer number of world leaders at the FNB Stadium was unprecedented.
The roll call included Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama and former President Jerry John Rawlings, who joined the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, and his predecessor, Kofi Annan; US President Barrack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron at the service.
Other leaders from around the world whose arrival at the South African stadium was applauded by the crowd were French Prime Minister Francois Hollande, who arrived together with his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy; China's Vice-President Li Yuanchao, Cuba's President Raol Castro, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, the Chairman of the African Union, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and many others.
The list was so long that many onlookers kept asking who was who at the Mandela funeral service.
The atmosphere
It was not only the heads of state and leaders who were the focus of televisions and photojournalists but also the thousands of South Africans who besieged the FND Stadium, which has a capacity to sit 95,000 people.
The atmosphere at the stadium was like a political rally when thousands of people from all over the country waved the rainbow-coloured flag of South Africa and portraits of Mandela.
The crowd sang struggle songs, such as ‘Tata wethu’, meaning ‘Our father’, with vuvezulas sounding throughout the stadium.
The late Mandela, a former South African President, who died aged 95 on Thursday, December 5, 2013, made his last public appearance at the stadium, also known as the Soccer City, during the closing ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Twenty three years ago, Mr Mandela, then newly freed from apartheid jail, was hailed by supporters as the hope of a new South Africa at the same venue where the memorial service was held on Tuesday.
Though organisers had intended to start the service at 11 a.m. local time or 09:00 GMT, it was delayed as a result of a downpour and dropped temperature.
Singing and dancing South Africans were trying to make their way through heavy rain into the memorial grounds to pay homage to Mandela even when the programme had kicked off.
The ceremony, which had been classified as one of the biggest gatherings of international dignitaries in recent years, began with a choir singing the South African Anthem, ‘Sikelele Africa’, which means ‘God bless Africa’.
That was followed by inter-faith prayers from Islamic, Hindu and Christian representatives.
Graca Machel, the widow of the former South African President, entered the stadium slowly, with a furrowed brow, looking devastated and flanked by some family members.
Mandela's ex-wife, Winnie, also arrived dressed somberly, all in black, walking with her daughter Zindzi.
Cheers and Boos
Speakers, including three grandchildren of Mr Mandela, struggled to read through their speeches, against the background noise which compelled the master of ceremonies, Cyril Ramaphose, to plead with the crowd to show discipline and not interrupt the speakers with cheers when someone they liked appeared on the large screens.
The crowd also booed anytime President Jacob Zuma was captured on the big screens at the stadium.
Speeches
Most speakers, eulogising the prisoner who became president, emphasised that Mandela was a unifier, a man of peace and a liberator.
When Ban Ki-Moon took the podium, he raised his hand and waved to cheers from the audience.
"South Africa has lost a hero, a father. The world has lost a beloved friend and mentor. Mandela was more than one of the greatest leaders of all time. This boxer fought throughout his life for each of us. It is the duty of all of us who loved him to keep his memory alive," he said.
“He was one of our greatest teachers. He taught by example, he sacrificed so much ... for freedom and equality, for democracy and justice,” Mr Ban Ki-Moon said.
President Obama, in a speech, said Mandela earned his place in history through struggle, shrewdness, persistence and faith.
Comparing him to Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln, he said, "South Africa, the world thanks you for sharing Mandela with us.”
“We can change that we can choose a world defined by our common hopes... We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again,” he said, before taking his seat and shaking hands with Cuba's President Castro.
The two leaders have not been getting on for years.
General Thanduxolo Mandela, who paid tribute on behalf of the Mandela Family, said, "We had to share him with the whole of South Africa. Tata, a son of Africa; a child of the Thembu; a descent of great kings. You will always be remembered."
Mandela's friend and ANC comrade, Andrew Mlangeni, 87, who served his prison term next to Mandela, was very emotional when he mounted the podium and said, with a cracking voice, "He was an inspiration to billions by epitomising the values of sacrifice and patience. He created hope when there was none."
Jacob Zuma, the South African President, said, "We sing: ‘He is one of a kind; there is no one quite like him’."
The song, he said, “is one of the most accurate descriptions of the global icon".
Burial Arrangement
Mandela's coffin was not brought to the stadium. He will lie in state in Pretoria until his burial on Sunday in his rural childhood village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape.
The country is observing a series of commemorations leading up to the funeral on Sunday.
Two of Mandela's granddaughters, Tukwini and Nandi, told the BBC that the family had been working to give him "the beautiful send-off that he deserves"..
