News Americas, BROOKLYN, N.Y., Tues. Dec. 10, 2013: Caribbean American Congresswoman, Yvette D. Clarke, will represent the Ninth Congressional District of New York as part of a bipartisan delegation of her colleagues in Congress who will attend the National Memorial Services to honor the life and legacy of President Nelson Mandela today, Tuesday, December 10th.
U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, former Presidents George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as well as Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff will also be among the guests attending the memorial in Johannesburg, South Africa at the FNB Stadium, also known as the Soccer City stadium, the site of the 2010 World Cup final.
“I consider it a great honor and privilege to be among the delegation of leaders representing the United States at the National Memorial Service in remembrance of the late, great President Nelson Mandela,” the congresswoman said Monday. “As an executive member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), I understood it my duty to take the opportunity to pay homage to President Mandela and his leadership and sacrifice on behalf of the South African people.”
In commenting on Mandela, she said she will remember him as a “Global Icon who by his life’s work and example demonstrated to the people of South Africa and indeed the World, that through hope, faith, righteousness and perseverance, it was possible to liberate the oppressed, and with the strength of moral conviction, bend the arc of history toward justice, in one’s lifetime.”
“May our fond memories of him inform our efforts to build a better world,” she added.
At 95 years old, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela joined the ancestors on December 5, 2013, leaving the world united in mourning – black and white, rich and poor, old and young, and definitely Caribbean and Latin American.
Mandela’s body will lie in state from Wednesday, Dec. 11th till Friday Dec. 13th at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the capital with viewing open to ‘South Africans and selected international visitors and guests.
The state funeral and burial for the Nobel peace prize laureate will be held in his rural hometown of Qunu in the Eastern Cape Province on Sunday Dec. 15.
More than 60 heads of state have confirmed that they will attend services for Mandela along with 26 members of the U.S. Congress.
