Oprah honors Mandela before her world charity concert



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SOWETO, South Africa (AFP) – Famous American TV star Oprah Winfrey paid an emotional tribute to Nelson Mandela on Thursday as she prepared to hold a celebrity concert in Johannesburg to celebrate the centenary celebrations of her birthday. birth.

Winfrey will co-host the Global Citizen festival on Sunday, featuring artists such as Beyonce, Jay-Z, Cassper Nyovest, Ed Sheeran, Pharrell Williams and Chris Martin.

The concert is the culmination of a year-long event celebrating the centennial of Mandela's birth in 1918 and is part of a campaign to combat poverty, malnutrition in children and to promote gender equality.

Winfrey praised Mandela's "kindness and integrity", describing him as his "favorite mentor" at a public debate on the Soweto campus of the University of Johannesburg.

"He was a man who could have sought revenge, but he was a man who sought reconciliation," she said, adding that he "knew that when one of us is hurt, we are all bleeding. "

Mandela was imprisoned under the apartheid regime in South Africa. After his release in 1990, he led the transformation of the country into a multiracial democracy.

Former US President Barack Obama spoke in Johannesburg in July to deliver the key speech at the "Mandela 100" celebrations.

Concert tickets were awarded to those who took part in the Global Citizen campaign.

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