Sen. Strom Thurmond celebrates with Mandela

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- South African President Nelson Mandela was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday, becoming the first African to be given that honor.

The medal was awarded "in recognition of his life-long dedication to the abolition of apartheid and the promotion of reconciliation among the people of the Republic of South Africa," said Sen. Carol Moseley Braun during the award ceremony.

Mandela was handed the medal in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in a ceremony attended by leading political figures from the United States and South Africa.

The medal has been awarded 117 times -- predominantly to Americans -- for services rendered in times of war, or for special achievements in the fields of science, medicine, arts and athletics. George Washington was the first American to be given the medal, in 1776. People from other countries who have received the medal include British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Mother Theresa.

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Members of Congress, including Maxine Waters, Richard Gephardt, Tom Daschle and Strom Thurmond, praised Mandela's courage, moral standing and political leadership in overcoming apartheid rule in South Africa. House Speaker Newt Gingrich hailed Mandela as the "Father of multiracial democracy in Africa."

"We owe it to him (Mandela) to build a permanent partnership between Americans and Africans for the education of our children, for the solution of our problems, for the resolution of our differences, for the elevation of what is best about us all," President Bill Clinton said in his speech, before presenting Mandela with the medal.

Clinton said the United States owed this not least of all because of Mandela's "10,000 long days" spent in prison during the apartheid era and his "shining example" as a political leader since his release.

Clinton

Bringing a light note to the speeches, Mandela said he felt "like a heavyweight boxing champion," now that he had been given a gold medal.

Turning serious, he thanked Congress for the honor he had been granted and added that the United States had played a key role in helping bring about the end of apartheid in South Africa.

Mandela referred to the challenges ahead for his continent and said that these challenges "call for a partnership of Africa and the United States, developing and developed countries to bring about a transfer of resources."

He said the partnership would have to "address the imbalances and disparities which have been so dramatically exposed in the turmoil in the world economic system."

The award ceremony came after Mandela and his wife, Graca Machel, spent the night at the White House, as part of the retiring South African president's farewell visit to the United States -- a visit which some observers say looks like a pep rally for embattled President Clinton.

"Our morality does not allow us to desert our friends," Mandela told the president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton during a reception with black religious leaders Tuesday night.

Without direct reference to the Monica Lewinsky controversy, Mandela went on, "It is not our business to interfere in this matter, but we do wish to say that President Clinton is a friend of South Africa and Africa and, I believe, the friend of the great mass of black people and minorities and the disabled of the United States."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.