People of all colours and creeds remember ‘Father of the Nation’

With hymns and eulogies, South Africans of all colours and creeds remembered Nelson Mandela in a day of prayers yesterday, holding him up as a symbol of freedom, forgiveness, and hope for the nation and the world.

At churches, mosques, synagogues, and community halls from the Limpopo River to the Cape, millions offered praise and reflected on a man celebrated as “Father of the Nation” and as a global beacon of integrity, rectitude, and reconciliation.

Mandela, South Africa’s first black president who steered his nation out of apartheid and into multi-racial democracy, died on Thursday at the age of 95.