JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Oprah Winfrey is paying tribute to Nelson Mandela and promoting gender equality at an event in South Africa, where she opened an academy for girls a decade ago.

The former talk show host on Thursday joined Graca Machel, Mandela's widow and an advocate of women's and children's rights, at the Soweto campus of the University of Johannesburg. The crowd erupted in cheers.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation is co-hosting the event, a century after Mandela was born. The anti-apartheid leader and South Africa's first black president died in 2013 at age 95.