JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Some of the hundreds of mourners gathered in South Africa Saturday to honor late singer Miriam Makeba said she symbolized the country's spirit.
Arts minister Pallo Jordan and poet Maishe Maponya were among the mourners in Johannesburg who honored Makeba's attempts to inspire the people of South Africa, the BBC reported.
Jordan detailed the singer, who died last weekend in Italy, as "a woman whose name became synonymous with the worldwide struggle for freedom in South Africa."
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe also honored the late singer with a video message from Washington, where he is taking part in a G20 economic summit.
"Let us say it loud and clear. Miriam Makeba was not affectionately called Mama Africa for nothing," the president said. "Her music reverberated with consciousness about the real conditions of South Africans."
The BBC said South Africa has been in mourning since Thursday, the day after Makeba's body officially arrived in the country.
