President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will attend Tuesday’s service with former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura; the Clintons; and former President Jimmy Carter.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama depart Joint Base Andrews in Washington en route to Johannesburg on Monday.
Nelson Mandela’s memorial service Tuesday will be like a gathering of the United Nations General Assembly — in a South African soccer stadium.
From Afghanistan to Australia, nearly 100 heads of state have indicated that they — or their representatives — will be at Mandela’s farewell.
And the U.S. delegation, led by President Obama, includes three of the four other living Presidents — and one potential President, Hillary Clinton.
In terms of diplomatic firepower, the memorial for Mandela rivals the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II and is likely to dwarf the send-offs for Princess Diana in 1997 and slain Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
“The whole world is coming to South Africa,” foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said.
It also means enemies may be forced to rub elbows in the stands of the 95,000-seat FNB stadium in Johannesburg.
Cuban leader Raul Castro will be within earshot of the American Presidents.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince Charles won’t be able to snub Zimbabwe’s pariah leader, Robert Mugabe.
And Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout will be keeping the lowest profile possible as a stand-in for his boss, Prime Minister Jiri Rusnok, who bagged the trip after he was caught on microphone saying he was “dreading” the funeral.
Isreali leader Benjamin Netanyahu, however, won’t have to make uncomfortable small talk with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. His office said he isn’t coming.
The Dalai Lama is also not coming. Neither is Pope Francis, who is dispatching Peter Cardinal Turkson — a former seminarian in upstate Rensselaer, N.Y. — in his place.
The music world will be represented by U2 frontman Bono and singers Annie Lennox and Peter Gabriel. Tycoon Richard Branson and supermodel Naomi Campbell will also be among the mourners.
With them all will be the tens of thousands of ordinary South Africans who have been camped out at the stadium for days for the chance to take part in this historic and unprecedented memorial.
Obama is one of just six world leaders who were invited to speak at the service. The others are Castro; the Presidents of Brazil, Namibia and India; and the Chinese vice president.
South African President Jacob Zuma will give the keynote address, according to the “Official Programme.
Obama is expected, during his 20 minute address, to touch on how Mandela inspired his life. The two history-making politicians met just once in 2005, during a brief meeting in a Washington hotel room when Obama was an Illinois senator.
“Like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set,” Obama said after Mandela died on Thursday at age 95.
Mandela’s death also spurred a rare reunion of Obama and wife Michelle and their White House predecessors, George and Laura Bush.
Also on the Air Force One flight to Johannesburg were Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder and Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser.
Former Presidents Carter and Clinton made their own travel arrangements.
Bush’s dad, George H.W. Bush, is the only living President who did not make the trip. His spokesman said the 89-year-old can no longer travel long distances.
Vice President Joe Biden also stayed behind and visited the South African embassy in Washington with his wife, Jill.
“Through his unflagging, unflinching commitment to human dignity and his willingness to forgive, he inspired us and challenged us all to do better,” Biden wrote in the condolence book.
Thousands of South African police officers will be deployed at the stadium where Mandela made his final public appearance in 2010 at the closing ceremony of the World Cup tournament.
All the roads ringing the stadium have been closed to the traffic, and South African government officials are actively urging their 51 million countrymen to remain in their home provinces and take part in memorials there.
Right now, nobody is quite sure how many people are descending on Johannesburg.
We expect as many people as possible, government minister Collins Chabane said.
Shrines bedecked with flowers and messages from mourners for the anti-apartheid leader were abloom across South Africa’s major city.
Six-year-old Ntokozo Thusi proudly placed a crayoned picture of herself and Mandela amid a sea of flower bouquets stretching across the plaza of Nelson Mandela Square in upscale Sandton outside Johannesburg.
Ntokozo’s older sister, Chantal, said she hoped the outpouring of emotions across all lines of race and class might spur South Africans to change their country for the better.
People should take his lessons to heart, said Chantal Thusi, 22, of Boksburg, a recent college graduate. “He wanted us to make South Africa a better place for everyone.
Tessa Cairns, 37, who lives in suburban Fourways, brought her 5-year-old daughter, Jessica, and her maid, Poppy Shongwe.
I wanted to give them a memory of what is happening in our country,” said Cairns. Nelson Mandela changed our country for the better, and I hope this is something that sticks with them forever.
Shongwe said she felt compelled to join the family outing to pay tribute to the man South Africans called Madiba.
I wanted to come, said Shongwe, who was born in the neighboring nation of Swaziland.
Makeshift memorials also grew at Mandela’s home in suburban Houghton, his one-time home in hardscrabble Soweto Township, and other locations linked to his storied life.
Attorney Mark Millner, who lives with his family in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Glenhazel, brought his 7-year-old daughter to see the memorials.
“A big part of his message was reconciliation,” Miller, 31, said. “I want her to know that message as she grows up in this country.”
csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
