Nelson Mandela’s burial in Qunu, South Africa, is more than 8,500 miles from Pittsburgh, but that's not stopping the Mt. Ararat Baptist Church from hosting a tribute Sunday for the former South African President and anti-apartheid revolutionary.
Mandela died on Dec. 5 at the age of 95.
The tribute will include actor and Trans Africa chairman Danny Glover and guest speaker Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers.
Sala Udin, one of the organizers, said people are celebrating Mandela’s life as much as they are grieving his death.
“Both of those activities are best done in a group of people who are also grieving and celebrating,” Udin said. “And so the purpose of the tribute is to bring all those people together so that we can grieve and celebrate together.”
Udin said they will explore how Mandela impacted the world.
“The inspiration that Nelson Mandela provided not only to South Africa but to the world and to what he meant to those of us in Pittsburgh, what we can take from his lessons going forward here in Pittsburgh,” Udin said.
According to Udin, Pittsburgh was instrumental in the anti-apartheid and disinvestment movements and has a long history of support of the African National Congress.
“We worked hard to get the release of Nelson Mandela from prison,” Udin said. “And in 1991, Mandela came to Pittsburgh to say thank you to all the Pittsburghers who had worked so hard to help in the struggle against South African apartheid.”
Mandela’s Pittsburgh stop came during his weeklong tour of the United States. He spoke to about 2,000 people at the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland.
Udin said the apartheid system in South Africa was very similar to the Jim Crow laws, which legally enforced segregation in the United States.
“He was to South Africa what Martin Luther King was to the African American Civil Rights movement here in Pittsburgh,” Udin said.
Sunday’s tribute at the Mt. Ararat Baptist Church from 2 to 5 pm is free and open to the public.
