Kirk Franklin Pulled Off Plane in Africa, Asked by Government to Perform at Nelson Mandela’s Memorial Service

Gospel star Kirk Franklin got the surprise of his life when he was asked by the South African government to perform at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service.

Franklin was in Johannesburg, Africa for 3 performances and was scheduled to leave prior to the festive memorial service.

About to board a plane, Franklin was held back and asked if he would like to perform at the memorial. Kirk told CNN that he graciously accepted, asking the Government to pull his crew’s bags off the plane.

Performing in front of President Obama, and hundreds of world leaders and a viewing audience in the millions, Franklin dazzled the crowd running from one end of the stadium to the other ministering in song.

Franklin told CNN, “I just wanted to make Nelson Mandela proud, South Africa proud, my hometown and family proud, and share my beliefs.”

[President Obama speaks to mourners attending the memorial service for former South African president Nelson Mandela at the FNB Stadium in Soweto near Johannesburg, Dec. 10, 2013. AP]

Mr. Mandela, who was 95, served just one term as South Africa’s president and had not been seen in public since 2010, when the nation hosted the soccer World Cup. But his decades in prison and his insistence on forgiveness over vengeance made him a potent symbol of the struggle to end this country’s brutally codified system of racial domination, and of the power of peaceful resolution in even the most intractable conflicts.

Years after he retreated from public life, his name still resonated as an emblem of his effort to transcend decades of racial division and create what South Africans called a Rainbow Nation.

Mandela was a devout Christian, who inspired leaders from around the world with his message of peace and forgiveness.