Kids carrying Nelson Mandela posters
Soweto:
"Viva Tata Madiba, Viva!" they shouted as the train door opened disgorging hundreds of mourners onto the platform.
From the station they walked, jogged, sang and chanted through an unusually rain-sodden Johannesburg morning toward the Soweto stadium, determined to pay their respects to Tata (Father) Nelson Mandela.
Bin-bag ponchos and a sliver of the same unwavering determination that vanquished white rule were all they needed to take this, another step along this reborn country's long walk to freedom.
"If he was able to stay behind bars for 27 years for us, what is one day, just one rain-drenched day?" asked Musa Mbele.
This was an important day for South Africa.
A young and still troubled nation was saying a celebratory goodbye to its hero, its talisman, its president and founding father.
"I'm a born-free. I was born in '94," said 19-year-old engineering student Luyanda with a big smile.
"The first few days I was crying. I've been watching everything on TV, documentaries. But today is a day of celebration", Luyanda said.
With access on a first-come basis, people began gathering before daybreak to secure a seat and join nearly 100 heads of state and government who came to pay tribute to Mandela's life and legacy.
Earlier in the day, some 70 kilometers (40 miles) away at the Waterkloof air force base, journalists watched as plane after plane swooped down bringing in the world leaders, from China, Germany, Brazil and every corner of the globe.
As the stadium stands filled up, the physical structure seemed to undulate as the crowd stomped their feet and danced as one, like a giant Mexican wave.
"This is once in your life. This is history," said Noma Kova, 36. "I didn't want to watch this on TV."
They sang folk songs, religious songs and above all songs of the struggle which Mandela spearheaded.
For many of the tens of thousands who formed a heaving mass inside the venue, the horrors of Soweto, Sharpesville and Boipatong are as raw as the everyday humiliation of passbooks and separate toilets.
"I used to live on the main street of Soweto, and in 1976... I remember we would see students drop on the street like flies while we ran around ducking bullets," said Jabu Maseko, 54, an office equipment business owner.
"The most humiliating time was when I went to apply for a dom (pass) and being asked to strip naked in a room full of people for a so-called medical examination."
Many in the stadium were wrapped in the South African flag or yellow-green coloured shawls printed with the slogan "Mandela Forever," and portraits of their hero.
"We've come full circle," said Dudu Manala, 49, member of the Imilonjikantu choir of Soweto who sang at Mandela's inauguration in 1994.
"Today we must let him go peacefully. Today is a day of celebration, and in our culture there's always singing, when a child is born, when someone passes away, we cry, but we sing also," Manala said.
"It's a way of de-stressing, it's like a therapy. But there will be more crying, when millions of people see the coffin, that is when they will feel the loss, the parting."
Mandela's body was to lie in state in Pretoria for three consecutive days from Wednesday.
Thousands of mourners had used a free train service from central Johannesburg to reach the stadium, mixing excitedly together on the platform and in the compartments -- men and women of all ages and races.
"I am going to the memorial to be closer to the national mood, to come out of my bubble," said white Afrikaans speaker Marcel Boezaart, 26.
Nigerian Fola Folowosele, 27, had been visiting friends in South Africa when the news that Mandela had died broke last Thursday.
For Folowosele, there was never any doubt in his mind that he would stay to be part of the week-long state funeral that followed.
"He's perhaps Africa's greatest son, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," he said.
Some in the crowd recalled treasured moments when they had seen or, in some cases, even met or spoken to the man they had come to remember.
"When you say Mandela, you are talking South Africa," said Julenda Ntlekoana, a nurse who met Mandela when he visited her Johannesburg hospital after he retired from office.
From the station they walked, jogged, sang and chanted through an unusually rain-sodden Johannesburg morning toward the Soweto stadium, determined to pay their respects to Tata (Father) Nelson Mandela.
Bin-bag ponchos and a sliver of the same unwavering determination that vanquished white rule were all they needed to take this, another step along this reborn country's long walk to freedom.
"If he was able to stay behind bars for 27 years for us, what is one day, just one rain-drenched day?" asked Musa Mbele.
This was an important day for South Africa.
A young and still troubled nation was saying a celebratory goodbye to its hero, its talisman, its president and founding father.
"I'm a born-free. I was born in '94," said 19-year-old engineering student Luyanda with a big smile.
"The first few days I was crying. I've been watching everything on TV, documentaries. But today is a day of celebration", Luyanda said.
With access on a first-come basis, people began gathering before daybreak to secure a seat and join nearly 100 heads of state and government who came to pay tribute to Mandela's life and legacy.
Earlier in the day, some 70 kilometers (40 miles) away at the Waterkloof air force base, journalists watched as plane after plane swooped down bringing in the world leaders, from China, Germany, Brazil and every corner of the globe.
As the stadium stands filled up, the physical structure seemed to undulate as the crowd stomped their feet and danced as one, like a giant Mexican wave.
"This is once in your life. This is history," said Noma Kova, 36. "I didn't want to watch this on TV."
They sang folk songs, religious songs and above all songs of the struggle which Mandela spearheaded.
For many of the tens of thousands who formed a heaving mass inside the venue, the horrors of Soweto, Sharpesville and Boipatong are as raw as the everyday humiliation of passbooks and separate toilets.
"I used to live on the main street of Soweto, and in 1976... I remember we would see students drop on the street like flies while we ran around ducking bullets," said Jabu Maseko, 54, an office equipment business owner.
"The most humiliating time was when I went to apply for a dom (pass) and being asked to strip naked in a room full of people for a so-called medical examination."
Many in the stadium were wrapped in the South African flag or yellow-green coloured shawls printed with the slogan "Mandela Forever," and portraits of their hero.
"We've come full circle," said Dudu Manala, 49, member of the Imilonjikantu choir of Soweto who sang at Mandela's inauguration in 1994.
"Today we must let him go peacefully. Today is a day of celebration, and in our culture there's always singing, when a child is born, when someone passes away, we cry, but we sing also," Manala said.
"It's a way of de-stressing, it's like a therapy. But there will be more crying, when millions of people see the coffin, that is when they will feel the loss, the parting."
Mandela's body was to lie in state in Pretoria for three consecutive days from Wednesday.
Thousands of mourners had used a free train service from central Johannesburg to reach the stadium, mixing excitedly together on the platform and in the compartments -- men and women of all ages and races.
"I am going to the memorial to be closer to the national mood, to come out of my bubble," said white Afrikaans speaker Marcel Boezaart, 26.
Nigerian Fola Folowosele, 27, had been visiting friends in South Africa when the news that Mandela had died broke last Thursday.
For Folowosele, there was never any doubt in his mind that he would stay to be part of the week-long state funeral that followed.
"He's perhaps Africa's greatest son, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," he said.
Some in the crowd recalled treasured moments when they had seen or, in some cases, even met or spoken to the man they had come to remember.
"When you say Mandela, you are talking South Africa," said Julenda Ntlekoana, a nurse who met Mandela when he visited her Johannesburg hospital after he retired from office.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
