Soweto, South Africa ? Tens of thousands of dancing and singing South Africans jammed a soccer stadium Saturday for the state funeral of Walter Sisulu, the “heroically humble” giant of the fight against apartheid.

“The African colossus that lies in front of us might have fallen, but he has not died,” said President Thabo Mbeki, who said Sisulu’s memory would live forever.

Since his death May 5 at the age of 90, Sisulu, who spent decades in apartheid prisons, has been hailed as a man of great integrity, the moral center of the African National Congress’ liberation struggle.

He was mourned in dozens of services across the country. World leaders sent their condolences, flags across South Africa were lowered to half staff, and the government voted to honor him with a state funeral.

“I want to declare loud and clear that after a life so exemplary, so inspiring … we are filled with deep thankfulness,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in his eulogy. “We have come to celebrate a wonderful life poured out so unselfishly on behalf of others.”

Tutu, who called Sisulu “heroically humble,” said he found it ironic that a man considered public enemy No. 2 in the apartheid era — after Nelson Mandela — was now being mourned by tens of thousands.

Hours before the hearse arrived at Orlando Stadium in the black township of Soweto, thousands danced in the stands and sang old liberation songs about former President Mandela, the late struggle leader Oliver Tambo and Sisulu.

“I think where ever he is he would be happy to see us celebrating,” Emmanuel Ramafalo, 24, said.

Funeral route jammed

Meanwhile, the white hearse carrying Sisulu’s coffin, draped in a South African flag, traveled slowly from his Soweto home to the stadium several miles away. Mourners lined the route, raising their fists in the air and singing the traditional mourning song of the guerrilla wing of the African National Congress.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela, right, passes by a portrait of ANC leader Walter Sisulu at the funeral service for Sisulu in Soweto, South Africa. Services were Saturday for Sisulu, who spent many years imprisoned together with Mandela on Robben Island. Sisulu, 90, died earlier in the week after a long illness.

When the hearse entered the stadium, the mourners fell silent and stood as a military band played mournful music and an honor guard presented arms.

After the funeral, four black and four white servicemen placed Sisulu’s coffin on an olive drab gun carriage for the journey through cheering crowds to a Soweto cemetery.

About 10 generals stood at attention as the coffin was unloaded.

One of Sisulu’s grandchildren read a statement from his wife, Albertina, who sat nearby.

“Walter, what do I do now without you? You for whom I wake up every morning, you for whom I lived,” she said.

Strategist, confidant

Sisulu has been hailed as the quiet hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, the strategist and the confidant of such leaders as Tambo and Mandela.

He was jailed repeatedly in the 1950s and 1960s before he was sentenced to life in 1964 alongside Mandela and other ANC leaders for plotting antigovernment sabotage.

Mandela praised his mentor as “one of the greatest among a generation of great freedom fighters” — a generation he said now was reaching the end of a long and heroic struggle.

“From the moment when we first met, he has been my friend, my brother, my keeper, my comrade,” Mandela said.

Mandela called Sisulu someone who brought people together, someone who never asked of others something he was unprepared to do himself, someone who should be an example to leaders of today.

Sisulu spent more than 25 years in jail before his release in 1989. Though he did not take a government position when the ANC came to power in the country’s first all-race elections in 1994, he set a moral example for the nation, ANC leaders said.

He was a patriot “who could never be bought or corrupted or forced by fear or fashion or love of material things to auction his soul,” Mbeki said.

In the crowd at the stadium, old struggle fighters mixed with teenagers who only learned about Sisulu after his death. Some traveled more than a day to pay respects to the man who helped bring about their liberation.

“He was prepared to die for our lives,” said Veronica Momane, 45, who traveled a day and half by train from Port Elizabeth to attend the funeral.

Mourners at the stadium also included African presidents Bakili Muluzi of Malawi and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique.