Nelson Mandela paid tribute to the anti-apartheid struggle Wednesday as Britain unveiled a towering statue in his honor outside the Houses of Parliament in London, saying it symbolized the sacrifices made by all who fight oppression.
Speaking to thousands of supporters as African hymns echoed from the walls of Westminster Abbey, the 89-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner recalled the many brave men and women who joined the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa.
"The history of the struggle in South Africa is rich with the stories of heroes and heroines, some of them leaders, some of them followers. All of them deserve to be remembered," Mandela declared after Prime Minister Gordon Brown pulled away a rainbow-striped cloth covering the statue.
Mandela came to personify the black majority's struggle to end apartheid, spending 27 years in jail before being released in 1990.