SOWETO, South Africa รข?? Thousands of South Africans came to this storied township on Sunday to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela with loud, raucous parades and festivities outside the small red brick home where as a young lawyer he organized the fight against white rule.
With Mandela’s passing, Vilakazi Street in this overwhelmingly black township that is home to more than 1.2 million people became a magnet for South Africans on the official day of mourning declared by the government.
Families of local residents, and those who once lived in Soweto and return to renew ancestral ties, crowded in front of the home amid a circus-like atmosphere. Crowds grew larger as the day wore on and by afternoon cars jammed roads leading up a hill that was blocked to all but a few vehicles.
Papallo Molefe, 10, came from Pretoria with his mother, father and sisters to the neighborhood where they once lived and provided an eloquent explanation for how deeply Mandela remains in hearts here.
“He fought apartheid and he fought for our freedom and he made a big change in the world,” Papallo said when asked what the late leader means to him.
His mother, Queen Molefe, said she and her
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