London ? Britain unveiled a statue of Nelson Mandela on Wednesday outside the houses of Parliament, honoring the South African anti-apartheid campaigner as one of the great leaders of his era.

Mandela, 89, saluted all the South African heroes who joined him in the struggle against apartheid.

“Though this statue is of one man, it should in actual fact symbolize all those who have resisted oppression, especially in my country,” Mandela said at the ceremony attended by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

“The history of the struggle in South Africa is rich with the stories of heroes and heroines, some of them leaders, some of them followers. All of them deserve to be remembered.”

The 9-foot bronze statue of Mandela joins those of Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.