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PRESIDENT OBAMA:Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you so much. Thankyou. To Graa Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma andmembers of the o!ernment; to heads of states and o!ernment" past andpresent; distinuished uests # it is a sinular honor to be $ith you today" tocelebrate a life like no other. To the people of %outh Africa # (applause) #

people of e!ery race and $alk of life # the $orld thanks you for sharin&elson Mandela $ith us. 'is strule $as your strule. 'is triumph $asyour triumph. our dinity and your hope found epression in his life. Andyour freedom" your democracy is his cherished leacy.

*t is hard to euloi+e any man # to capture in $ords not ,ust the facts and thedates that make a life" but the essential truth of a person # their pri!ate ,oysand sorro$s; the -uiet moments and uni-ue -ualities that illuminatesomeones soul. 'o$ much harder to do so for a iant of history" $ho mo!eda nation to$ard ,ustice" and in the process mo!ed billions around the $orld.

/orn durin 0orld 0ar *" far from the corridors of po$er" a boy raised herdincattle and tutored by the elders of his Thembu tribe" Madiba $ould emereas the last reat liberator of the 12th century. 3ike Gandhi" he $ould lead aresistance mo!ement # a mo!ement that at its start had little prospect forsuccess. 3ike 4r. 5in" he $ould i!e potent !oice to the claims of theoppressed and the moral necessity of racial ,ustice. 'e $ould endure a brutalimprisonment that bean in the time of 5ennedy and 5hrushche!" andreached the final days of the 6old 0ar. 7merin from prison" $ithout theforce of arms" he $ould # like Abraham 3incoln # hold his country toether$hen it threatened to break apart. And like Americas 8oundin 8athers" he$ould erect a constitutional order to preser!e freedom for future enerations

# a commitment to democracy and rule of la$ ratified not only by hiselection" but by his $illinness to step do$n from po$er after only one term.

Gi!en the s$eep of his life" the scope of his accomplishments" the adorationthat he so rihtly earned" its temptin * think to remember &elson Mandelaas an icon" smilin and serene" detached from the ta$dry affairs of lessermen. /ut Madiba himself stronly resisted such a lifeless portrait. (Applause.)*nstead" Madiba insisted on sharin $ith us his doubts and his fears; hismiscalculations alon $ith his !ictories. 9* am not a saint": he said" 9unlessyou think of a saint as a sinner $ho keeps on tryin.:

*t $as precisely because he could admit to imperfection # because he couldbe so full of ood humor" e!en mischief" despite the hea!y burdens hecarried # that $e lo!ed him so. 'e $as not a bust made of marble; he $as aman of flesh and blood # a son and a husband" a father and a friend. Andthats $hy $e learned so much from him" and thats $hy $e can learn fromhim still. 8or nothin he achie!ed $as ine!itable. *n the arc of his life" $e seea man $ho earned his place in history throuh strule and shre$dness" andpersistence and faith. 'e tells us $hat is possible not ,ust in the paes of

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history books" but in our o$n li!es as $ell.

Mandela sho$ed us the po$er of action; of takin risks on behalf of ourideals. Perhaps Madiba $as riht that he inherited" 9a proud rebelliousness" astubborn sense of fairness: from his father. And $e kno$ he shared $ith

millions of black and colored %outh Africans the aner born of" 9a thousandslihts" a thousand indinities" a thousand unremembered momentsadesire to fiht the system that imprisoned my people": he said.

/ut like other early iants of the A&6 # the %isulus and Tambos # Madibadisciplined his aner and channeled his desire to fiht into orani+ation" andplatforms" and strateies for action" so men and $omen could stand up fortheir God e-ual opportunities. *tis an ideal $hich * hope to li!e for and to achie!e. /ut if needs be" it is anideal for $hich * am prepared to die.: (Applause.)

Mandela tauht us the po$er of action" but he also tauht us the po$er ofideas; the importance of reason and aruments; the need to study not onlythose $ho you aree $ith" but also those $ho you dont aree $ith. 'eunderstood that ideas cannot be contained by prison $alls" or etinuishedby a snipers bullet. 'e turned his trial into an indictment of apartheidbecause of his elo-uence and his passion" but also because of his trainin asan ad!ocate. 'e used decades in prison to sharpen his aruments" but alsoto spread his thirst for kno$lede to others in the mo!ement. And he learnedthe lanuae and the customs of his oppressor so that one day he mihtbetter con!ey to them ho$ their o$n freedom depend upon his. (Applause.)

Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enouh. &o matter ho$riht" they must be chiseled into la$ and institutions. 'e $as practical"testin his beliefs aainst the hard surface of circumstance and history. ?ncore principles he $as unyieldin" $hich is $hy he could rebuff offers ofunconditional release" remindin the Apartheid reime that 9prisonerscannot enter into contracts.:

/ut as he sho$ed in painstakin neotiations to transfer po$er and draft

ne$ la$s" he $as not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larer oal. Andbecause he $as not only a leader of a mo!ement but a skillful politician" the6onstitution that emered $as $orthy of this multiracial democracy" true tohis !ision of la$s that protect minority as $ell as ma,ority rihts" and theprecious freedoms of e!ery %outh African.

And finally" Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. There isa $ord in %outh Africa # @buntu # (applause) # a $ord that captures

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Mandelas reatest ift his reconition that $e are all bound toether in$ays that are in!isible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that$e achie!e oursel!es by sharin oursel!es $ith others" and carin for thosearound us.

0e can ne!er kno$ ho$ much of this sense $as innate in him" or ho$ much$as shaped in a dark and solitary cell. /ut $e remember the estures" lareand small # introducin his ,ailers as honored uests at his inauuration;takin a pitch in a %prinbok uniform; turnin his familys heartbreak into acall to confront '*BCA*4% # that re!ealed the depth of his empathy and hisunderstandin. 'e not only embodied @buntu" he tauht millions to find thattruth $ithin themsel!es.

*t took a man like Madiba to free not ,ust the prisoner" but the ,ailer as $ell #(applause) # to sho$ that you must trust others so that they may trust you;to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of inorin a cruel past" but a

means of confrontin it $ith inclusion and enerosity and truth. 'e chanedla$s" but he also chaned hearts.

8or the people of %outh Africa" for those he inspired around the lobe"Madibas passin is rihtly a time of mournin" and a time to celebrate aheroic life. /ut * belie!e it should also prompt in each of us a time for self