Sunday, Nelson Mandela was laid to rest and friends and family held a funeral for him in his hometown; this ends a 10-day period of mourning and memorial services in his honor. Oprah Winfrey attended the funeral with over 4,000 people; Oprah interviewed Mandela in 2000 for her talk show. His family spoke at the funeral and spoke about Nelson Mandela’s early years in his hometown of Qunu.
The current President of South Africa's, Jacob Zuma spoke these words at the funeral:
“We learned from you to build a new society, a new South Africa, from the ashes of apartheid colonialism, we needed to rise above anger and the human desire for retribution. In this way you offered hope in the place of hopelessness. As your journey ends today, ours must continue."
This week, Nelson Mandela’s body was placed in a casket and hundreds of thousands of people from around the world came to see his body and honor him.
Tuesday, President Obama and the first lady and leaders from around the world attended a memorial for Nelson Mandela in South Africa. President Obama spoke at the memorial.
Nelson Mandela is a former president of South Africa and was best known for spending 27 years in prison in South Africa during apartheid.
In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1994, Mandela became South Africa's first black president and served for five years. His last public appearance was during the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament when it was held in South Africa. He was imprisoned for 27 years in an attempt to fight racist white rule. Mandela was retired and lived in the village of Qunu.