Mandela, the great man Mandela.

Nelson Mandela.

Everyone in the world respects Nelson Mandela, everyone reveres Nelson Mandela.

Now the case, Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was elected democratically.

Free bold feels like Mandela free.

Everybody mentioned Nelson Mandela, of course.

Now as you know, Mandela didn't do that.

Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This is Applause

Or, any South Africans, we have Mandela to inspire.

And the leader that came to mind was Nelson Mandela.

Amy Winehouse said, Nelson Mandela and I have a lot in common.

Then we'll want to print out the word Mandela on the screen.

Could we really be the great generation that Mandela asked us to be?

I was with Nelson Mandela a year ago, when he was in London.

It's about those children who took to the streets fighting, screaming, Free Nelson Mandela!

My parents were both elected to the first parliament, alongside Nelson and Winnie Mandela.

I had the privilege and the honor to work in the government of Nelson Mandela.

And 46664 is the number that Mandela had when he was imprisoned in Robben Island.

Nelson Mandela then went down to the stage and he summarized the challenge for us all.

I saw the inauguration of Nelson Mandela, and it was the most uplifting thing I've ever seen.

When Mandela came out of prison after 27 years of captivity, if he had told his people,

And I see that we, ordinary people, can do what Aung San Suu Kyi and Ghandi and Mandela did.

Mandela told the world's press that there was a virtual genocide taking place in his country that post apartheid

I was sitting next to Nelson Mandela I was very privileged to do so when Amy Winehouse came onto the stage.

Nelson Mandela said, in the mid 2000s, not too far from here, he said that like slavery and apartheid, Poverty is not natural.

You know, we were just in South Africa, and you can't go to South Africa without thinking of Mandela in jail for 27 years.

And Nelson Mandela was quite surprised at the appearance of the singer and I was explaining to him at the time who she was.

At the same time in South Africa, after Nelson Mandela had been released from prison, the black population commenced the final phase of liberation from apartheid.

And Nelson Mandela, who lives by the African concept of ubuntu, which means I need you in order to be me, and you need me in order to be you.

Nelson Mandela once said to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Applause

I met Mandela at the Arusha peace talks, and so on and so on and so on while I was building the case to prove whether this idea would make sense.

Because Nelson Mandela, as he took over power as the first democratically elected president of South Africa, faced a situation of a country that could have slid into the abyss of chaos.

The next day, all the artists were invited to join Mandela in Robben Island, where he was going to give a conference to the world's press, standing in front of his former prison cell.

While we're here, Nelson Mandela was actually the first South African President in a fully representative democratic election, and he went on to win the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, plus a host of other honors.

And this island happened to be the infamous Robben Island, where many, many, many political prisoners who fought against apartheid were held wrongfully for some 20 years, give or take, one of those prisoners having been President Nelson Mandela.

And our guide, he slowly turned to us and asked if any of us would like to open the prison cell where President Mandela was held for 18 years of his life with the master key of the prison.

Nelson Mandela I take a little piece of limestone from Robben Island Prison, where he labored for 27 years, and came out with so little bitterness, he could lead his people from the horror of apartheid without a bloodbath.

I participated in every single 46664 event that I could take part in and gave news conferences, interviews, talking and using my platform as a musician, with my commitment to Mandela out of respect for the tremendous, unbelievable work that he had done.

We just recently opened a learning laboratory in a school in the West Cape in South Africa, in a school that's called Nelson Mandela School, and when you see the faces and activities of these children being able to access computers, it's just phenomenal.

We could make a very long list, but obviously Nelson Mandela, emerging from 17 years of hard physical labor, 23 years of imprisonment, with this amazing ability to forgive, so that he could lead his nation out the evil regime of apartheid without a bloodbath.

Nelson Mandela went to jail believing in violence, and 27 years later he and his colleagues had slowly and carefully honed the skills, the incredible skills, that they needed to turn one of the most vicious governments the world has known into a democracy.

liberty is usually around the corner, even for the poorest of the poor facts that can challenge cynicism and the apathy that leads to inertia, facts that tell us what's working and, more importantly, what's not, so we can fix it, facts that if we hear them and heed them could help us meet the challenge that Nelson Mandela made back in 2005, when he asked us to be that great generation that overcomes that most awful offense to humanity, extreme poverty, facts that build a powerful momentum.