President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks during a private memorial service for civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters.
Image: Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a deeply personal tribute to the late American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson Sr. on Saturday, praising him as a steadfast ally of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle and declaring that the country regards him as “one of our own”.
Speaking at Jackson’s funeral service at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago, Ramaphosa said the people of South Africa had gathered in spirit with mourners to honour a man whose activism crossed borders and strengthened the global fight for justice.
Jackson, the influential civil rights campaigner and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, died on February 17 at the age of 84.
Hundreds of mourners packed the organisation’s headquarters for the homegoing service, with many arriving hours before the ceremony began.
The gathering drew an array of American and international figures, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, civil rights leader Al Sharpton, Democratic Republic of the Congo President Félix Tshisekedi, and several entertainers and community leaders.
In his address, Ramaphosa reflected on Jackson’s enduring bond with South Africa, telling mourners that belonging was not defined by birthplace but by the struggles one chooses to stand for.
Ramaphosa arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Friday ahead of Rev. Jackson's private funeral on Saturday.
Image: Jairus Mmutle / GCIS
“Today we are also here, as South Africans, to claim Reverend Jesse Jackson as one of our own,” he said. “We lay claim on him today because he laid claim on us first.”
Ramaphosa described how Jackson used his voice to challenge apartheid when many others remained silent.
According to the president, Jackson’s message of hope, famously captured in his rallying call to “keep hope alive”, resonated deeply with South Africans during the darkest years of racial oppression.
“He looked at a people he had never met and said: their pain is my pain. Their chains are my chains. Their struggle for freedom is my struggle,” Ramaphosa said.
The tribute highlighted Jackson’s longstanding activism against apartheid, including his first visit to South Africa in 1979, when he addressed large crowds in Soweto just two years after the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko.
Ramaphosa recalled how Jackson became one of the most prominent American voices advocating economic sanctions against the apartheid government, even being arrested during protests outside the South African embassy in Washington in 1985 alongside his sons.
Ramaphosa also emphasised Jackson’s role in elevating South Africa’s struggle on the global stage.
He noted that Jackson marched with anti-apartheid leaders such as Oliver Tambo and British activist Trevor Huddleston during a massive anti-apartheid demonstration in London that drew more than 150,000 people, and used his influence to lobby world leaders for action against the apartheid regime.
The president recalled that Jackson was present for several pivotal moments in South Africa’s history, including witnessing the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990 and attending his inauguration as the country’s first democratically elected president in 1994.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was due to deliver a tribute to the late Jesse Jackson at his Celebration of Life in Chicago on Saturday.
Image: YouTube
“He was there not because it was required of him, but because it was in him to witness the emergence of the South Africa he had campaigned for,” Ramaphosa said.
Reflecting on Jackson’s legacy, Ramaphosa placed him within a lineage of leaders who carried forward the global struggle for justice, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Mandela, describing their work as a torch passed from generation to generation.
Jackson, he said, ensured that the dream of equality continued to burn brightly in the hearts of those resisting injustice.
Ramaphosa also expressed gratitude to the Jackson family, saying South Africans remained indebted to the civil rights leader for standing with them through the years of struggle.
South Africa later honoured Jackson with the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo, one of the country’s highest awards for foreign nationals who supported the liberation movement.
Jackson was laid to rest later on Saturday at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighbourhood, closing a chapter on a life that shaped civil rights struggles in both the United States and beyond.
For Ramaphosa, however, Jackson’s legacy remains firmly embedded in South Africa’s democratic journey.
“No medal or honour is wide enough to express what Jesse Jackson gave us,” he said. “It lives in our Constitution. It lives in our freedom.”