For most of the world, his name is synonymous with courage and perseverance. Leaders and citizens, athletes and artists remembered Nelson Mandela on Friday December 6 2013— though many struggled to find words big enough to describe the man who changed the face of South Africa and inspired a continent and a world: a colossus, a father figure, a giant baobab tree providing shade for an entire nation.
Flags were lowered to half-staff in many countries, a portrait of Mandela adorned the outside of France’s Foreign Ministry, mourners left flowers at a statue in London, and children in South Africa ran through the streets carrying his image.
