Nelson Mandela Funeral Journey

Monica Morgan

I really wasn’t planning to go back.

I was cooking when my friend Emma Bell called me and tentatively shared the news-Nelson Mandela had died.

It was like a daggar had been pierced in my heart. The moment was bittersweet….what a tremendous loss for the world and yet, he was out of pain and finally at peace.

I was numb. My mind flashed back to the first moment I had learned about apartheid, and fast forwarded to the time I hopped on a plane and went to photograph the first all-race elections and the eventual inauguration of Nelson Mandela. Then the time I went back for his retirement and the last time, his 90th Birthday Party.

My phone began to ring and text messages started to flow. I was still taking it all in….my heart began to beat faster…..

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Monica Morgan

Media requests for me to speak started to come in…I couldn’t possibly speak. I was still processing…taking it all in. I called my husband and with his soothing voice and calm spirit, he told me….”you can do it.”

I did the tv and radio interviews with him close by and a facebook post and then the big question came from somewhere…..”You are going to the funeral, right?” I don’t even know who asked first….

The answer was obvious…no, I wasn’t going back. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to get clearance….things had changed so…

And then my husband said, “you need to go.” Deep down, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I needed an excuse….to say that I was still a newlywed and it just wasn’t possible for me to go….

I mentally started to pack, began to look up airline tickets, called Bill Garth at The Citizen News, Richard Muhammad at The Final Call, and the next thing I knew I was on the world’s longest flight to Johannesburg. (The pilot said the flight was 14 1/2 hours…the website said over 16.) I said a prayer as I always had and asked God to make things fall into place. And things did.

I ran into Bishop PA Brooks and Rev. Jesse Jackson in the Atlanta airport waiting for the Johannesburg flight and was almost sitting next to George Curry…..the stars were lining up….

Upon arrival in South Africa, one thing led to another and I found myself “rolling with Rev. Jackson and his team and there was never a dull moment. We hit the ground running.

My South African contact and new friend, Sister Bashira, met up with us and rolled, too.

We went to a program at The Nelson Mandela Foundation, where two of his grandsons were and quite a few South African dignitaries. We visited Mandela’s home in Houghton where he had passed away and talked with his widow, Graca Machal. We went to South African President Zuma’s Presidential Guest House and talked with him. We paid our respects to Mandela as his body lay in State at The Pretoria Buildings. We spent time in Soweto, eating, shopping and visiting the Mandela House, now a museum, where Nelson and Winnie lived. We visited the ANC and met a few of their officials. We attended the closing of the casket ceremonies where we saw former SA VP and President Thabo Mbeki, Graca Machal, Winnie Mandela, President Zuma, family members and many other dignitaries. We even had a chance to stand at Mandela’s coffin, an honor where I gladly put my camera down to participate.

And then it was time to depart to Qunu for Mandela’s native village and final resting place. I was selected to ride on a private plane with Rev. Jackson, his son, Yusef Jackson and award-winning journalist Curry.

It was an amazing day. After a mix-up with the plane, we ended up on an Air Force jet and were met by a police escort that took us to the funeral.

The ceremony was dignified and attended by various heads of State, Prince Charles, Oprah, Steadman, Gayle King, Richard Branch, Forest Whitaker, Idris Elba and Alfre Woodard to mention a few.

It was a send-off fit for a King.

We attended the After-Tears with a few heads of state, SA dignitaries, Mandela family members and Idris Elba.

The next day, a 30ft statue of Mandela was unveiled in Pretoria, 24 hours after his solemn burial, on a holiday dedicated to reconciliation, the 100th Anniversary of the Union Buildings. How ironic, the same buildings where Mandela once fought unjust laws and then in 1994, after spending 27 years in jail, was sworn in as president of the New South Africa.

“The Union Buildings was therefore built on a shaky foundation of racial discrimination and oppression…At this institution, many racial laws were signed which entrenched deep racial divisions against black people, culminating in the adoption of apartheid in 1948,” said Zuma.

According to Zuma, the unveiling of the statue was a symbolic gesture of the departure from South Africa’s racially segregated past, which was represented by two Boer Republics and two colonies, to a unified nation

”There should now be no more tears. We must celebrate Madiba and take forward his legacy. He should live in our hearts and inspire us to do something good every single day.

Zuma spoke to the media after unveiling the statue “As your journey ends today, ours must continue in earnest… South Africa will continue to rise because we dare not fail you.”

Shortly after the dignitaries and family members moved to another location, I stayed behind with a handful of other journalists taking photos of the statue. All of a sudden, there was a twenty-one gun salute, while three SA Air Force jets and then helicopters carrying the SA flag flew past.

Tears started to fall from my eyes. I couldn’t stop them. I finally had closure. So glad that I had made the journey. He was gone. It hit me hard at that moment. I thought back to my middle schools days where I first developed an interest in apartheid and South Africa. An icon that had fought, lived and was willing to die for his beliefs.

I looked up and saw the smiling statue of Madiba, looming above me, smiling, happy with his arms outstretched as if they were saying “finally.” His legacy will live on.

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