Indian tribute to Mandela confuses dead icon with Morgan Freeman

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As people all over the world pay tribute to South African icon Nelson Mandela, it’s probably inevitable that will be the occasional faux pas.

The well-meaning Indian citizens behind a billboard in Coimbatore are surely embarrassed that their homage features an image of actor Morgan Freeman where Mandela’s face should be.

Freeman famously played Mandela in the 2009 film Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood.

The image on the billboard, which also features pictures of Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr., reads:

Among today’s politicians who cannot think beyond the next election cycle, Nelson Mandela was a leader who thought of the well-being of future generations. He went to join Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King on 5.12.13. We bow down to him, proud to have lived during his time on earth and praise his message of love, non-violence and sacrifice. “The farmer may sleep, but the seeds he planted never will.”

Mandela died at age 95 on December 5th. A recent survey found that his name was the most searched on Google in the year 2013.