Thursday last week, former South African President Nelson Mandela passed away at the age of 95. He was activist who spent 27 years in prison before becoming his country’s first black president. There will be a funeral held for him in his hometown of Qunu and numerous people will be in attendance including President Obama, former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter. Other attendants include Naomi Campbell, Oprah Winfrey, U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Bono, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and the Prince of Wales.
Mandela’s death sparked responses all around the globe. President Obama said, “I cannot imagine my own life without the example Mandela set.” South Africa’s current President Jacob Zuma also expressed his view on Mandela and said, “Our thoughts are with the South African people, who today mourn the loss of the one person who, more expressed than any other, came to embody their sense of a common nation. Our thoughts are with the millions of people across the world who embraced Madiba as their own, and who saw his cause as their cause. This is the moment of our deepest sorrow. Our nation has lost its greatest son.”
There have also been tributes created all around the world for him. New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg broadcasted that a high school in Brooklyn will be renamed as the Nelson Mandela School for social justice. At the Empire State Building, there were lights the color of South Africa’s flag and the Apollo Theater changed its marquee in honor of Mandela. In Paris, an enormous portrait was displayed in front of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.
With people mourning around the world, Nelson Mandela has united people everywhere and it’s up to them to make sure his idealism lives on.