South Africa mourns and prepares for Tuesday's tribute to Nelson Mandela
Mourners from Nigeria, sing outside the home of former president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. Along a street lined with walled mansions shaded by graceful jacaranda trees, mourners black and white by the thousands rubbed shoulders Monday outside the villa where Nelson Mandela died, placing flower bouquets and condolence notes on top of piles already knee-high. Others danced while singing praise for the anti-apartheid leader _ a vivid example of the “Rainbow Nation” unity of race-blind multiculturalism championed by Mandela for South Africa.Themba Hadebe/The Associated Press
A woman writes on a wall next to the house where Nelson Mandela resided in when he lived in the township of Soweto December 9, 2013. More than 70 world leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Iran's Hassan Rouhani are flying to South Africa for events commemorating Mandela this week, an unprecedented gathering that will hail one of humanity's great peacemakers. Mandela died on Thursday aged 95.YVES HERMAN/Reuters
U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama depart Joint Base Andrews in Washington en route to Johannesburg December 9, 2013. Obama will attend the memorial service for South Africa's Nelson Mandela on Tuesday. 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 after months of illness.KEVIN LAMARQUE/Reuters
People work on the property of former South African President Nelson Mandela to erect an arena ahead of his state burial service on Sunday, in Qunu December 9, 2013. South African anti-apartheid hero Mandela died aged 95 at his Johannesburg home on December 5 after a prolonged lung infection.SIEGFRIED MODOLA/Reuters
A poster of former South African President Nelson Mandela lays between flowers outside of his house in Johannesburg, Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. Scores of heads of state and government and other foreign dignitaries, including royalty, are beginning to converge on South Africa as the final preparations for Tuesday's national memorial service for liberation struggle icon Nelson Mandela are put in place.Markus Schreiber/The Associated Press
A child looks at a statue depicting former president Nelson Mandela, by artist Marco Cianfanelli, near Howick, South Africa, Monday Dec.9, 2013. This is the place where Mandela was arrested in 1962 and subsequently jailed for 27 years. Mandela died on Dec. 5 aged 95.John Robinson/The Associated Press
A projection of the face of former South African President Nelson Mandela and his clan name Madiba is projected onto the face of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa December 8, 2013. South African anti-apartheid hero Mandela died aged 95 at his Johannesburg home on December 5 after a prolonged lung infection. Picture taken December 8, 2013.STRINGER/Reuters
An orphan from Orlando Children's Home pays tribute to Nelson Mandela outside of his house on Vilakazi Street in Soweto, where the former South African president resided when he lived in the township, December 9, 2013. More than 70 world leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Iran's Hassan Rouhani are flying to South Africa for events commemorating Mandela this week, an unprecedented gathering that will hail one of humanity's great peacemakers. Mandela died on Thursday aged 95.YVES HERMAN/Reuters
South African soccer supremo and Kaizer Chiefs FC chairman Kaizer Motaung, holds a flower as he arrivea at the home of former president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. Scores of heads of state and government and other foreign dignitaries, including royalty, are beginning to converge on South Africa as the final preparations for Tuesday's national memorial service for liberation struggle icon Nelson Mandela are put in place.Themba Hadebe/The Associated Press
Security guards and volunteers stand outside the First National Bank (FNB) Stadium, also known as Soccer City, ahead of Nelson Mandela's national memorial service on Tuesday in Johannesburg December 9, 2013. More than 70 world leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to Iran's Hassan Rouhani are flying to South Africa for events commemorating Nelson Mandela this week, an unprecedented gathering that will hail one of humanity's great peacemakers. The 95,000-seat stadium in Soweto, the township that was at the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle, will host the main memorial ceremony for Mandela, who died on Thursday aged 95.SIPHIWE SIBEKO/Reuters
People sing and dance in tribute to former South African President Nelson Mandela outside his house in Johannesburg December 9, 2013. South African anti-apartheid hero Mandela died aged 95 at his Johannesburg home on December 5 after a prolonged lung infection.RONEN ZVULUN/Reuters
Visitors at a makeshift memorial for former South African President Nelson Mandela near his home in the Houghton suburb of Johannesburg, Dec. 9, 2013. The South African authorities scrambled on Monday to deal with the logistical, security and protocol complexities of hosting scores of visiting dignitaries – and tens of thousands of their own people – at a national memorial for Mandela on Tuesday in the World Cup soccer stadium where he made his last public appearance in 2010.OZIER MUHAMMAD/The New York Times