SOWETO, South Africa — Tens of thousands of people streamed into a huge soccer stadium here on Tuesday along with leaders and celebrities from around the world, braving heavy rain to pay common tribute to Nelson Mandela, the man who inspired the struggle against apartheid from his prison cell.
“There was no way I was not going to be here,” Wandisila Mafunya shouted over the ululating, joyous crowd. “If it wasn’t for Nelson Mandela, I would not be here, living the life of freedom I live.”
Mr. Mafunya had left his house in Kipler Park well before sunrise, hoping to be the first in line, joining a crush of people who sang songs, stomped their feet and shouted the name of the man whose life they had come to celebrate. “Viva, Nelson Mandela, Viva!” Mr. Mafunya, a 30-year-old flight attendant, shouted as he joined the throng to attend the national memorial for Mr. Mandela, who died on Thursday.
Mr. Mandela’s last public appearance, during the World Cup soccer tournament in 2010, was in the same FNB Stadium that was the setting for his national memorial, midway through 10 days of mourning before his state funeral on Sunday in his childhood village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape.
People arriving for the ceremony reached for umbrellas and raincoats as the downpour drenched the streets outside and the stadium itself.
The tributes to Mr. Mandela are drawing an unprecedented crowd of global V.I.P.'s, including at least 91 heads of state and government, celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and the singer Bono as well as royalty including Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, who plans to attend the state funeral in Qunu.
President Obama is scheduled to speak, as is South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma. Other speakers will include the presidents of Brazil, India and Cuba.
Jay Naidoo, a close confidant of Mr. Mandela and one of his early government ministers in charge of housing and development, eschewed the V.I.P. seats for a nosebleed spot high above the stage where the world’s good and great would be seated.
“This is a day for the people, not the powerful,” said Mr. Naidoo. “What Nelson Mandela stood for most of all was solidarity with the downtrodden of the world, and for them he is a symbol of social justice and human rights. That is why I am saying my goodbye from the ranks of the people.”
Shortly before the scheduled start, the stadium was roughly half full, with most people crowding into the highest areas under a roof to shelter from the rain. “Even heaven is crying,” one woman in the crowd declared. “We have lost an angel.”
Many made long journeys, by bus and by train, to reach the stadium. Others gave up waiting for buses that they said never came and instead began the long slog in the rain to the stadium.
In spite of the memorial service, the day was not a holiday and at train stations on the outskirts of Johannesburg most people were going to work as if it were a normal Tuesday. Still, people continued to arrived, bowed against the hard, slanting rain.
As the formal starting time slipped by about one hour, family members began to arrive, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Mr. Mandela’s former wife, and his widow, Graça Machel. President Robert G. Mugabe of Zimbabwe was among many African leaders, including those of Nigeria, Uganda, both Congo states and Equatorial Guinea.
Cyril Ramaphosa, a former labor leader who became a wealthy entrepreneur and, more recently, deputy leader of the governing African National Congress, presided over the ceremony, just as he played a central role when Mr. Mandela was released after 27 years in prison in 1990.
“His long walk is over,” Mr. Ramaphosa declared, referring to “Long Walk to Freedom” the title of Mr. Mandela’s autobiography. “But ours is only beginning.”
“More than 100 countries are represented here today representing easily billions of people around the world,” Mr. Ramaphosa said, adding that the event was “how Nelson Mandela would have wanted to be sent off.”
“He was our teacher and our mentor and never gave up on us for our failures,” Mr. Ramaphosa said.
Religious leaders offered prayers.
Shannon Kelly, an accountant who lives in the upscale Johannesburg suburb of Bryanston, took a bus, a train, then walked the rest of the way. “I had to be here,” Ms. Kelly said, her raincoat hood drawn tight around her face. “Our generation is truly born free because of Mandela. We see no race, no divisions. We are all South Africans.”
A woman who identified herself as Glory stood in a group of more than 100 people at a bus stop in Soweto, waiting for more than two hours in the rain. She said she felt she had to pay her respects to the man she credited with changing her life.
“I grew up in a one-room house. Now I bought my own home, have a good job,” she said. “We have to say ‘thank you’ to the father.”
Charlotte Ntsamai, 35, jogged along the highway, the stadium still miles in the distance, with a singing group led by men in fatigues chanting anti-apartheid songs. She was undaunted by the rain. “We marched for freedom. We’re used to marching,” she said. “Nelson Mandela fought for us and today we’re going to remember him.”
The national memorial service came 20 years to the day after Mr. Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, South Africa’s last white president, who negotiated the demise of Afrikaner power, traveled together to Oslo to receive a shared Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. de Klerk was among the dignitaries arriving at the stadium on Tuesday for the event along with Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain.
President François Hollande of France planned to travel on from the ceremony to the Central African Republic where his country has sent troop reinforcements to try to quell unrest, news reports said.
Lydia Polgreen and Nicholas Kulish reported from Soweto, South Africa, and Alan Cowell from London.
