Obama ‘the perfect choice’
Former US president Barack Obama is the perfect choice to renew the Nelson Mandela legacy and promote active citizenry‚ the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) says.
Obama will deliver the 16th Nelson Mandela memorial lecture on Tuesday‚ marking 100 years since the birth of the anti-apartheid icon.
The foundation’s Luzuko Koti said Obama‚ with his global reach‚ was the ideal speaker to raise uncomfortable questions‚ provoke dialogue and draw attention to values that today were under threat.
“One of the things we are dealing with is captured democracies that don’t work for the poor‚ that don’t work for people in countries that are underdeveloped‚ where people are made to be rubber stampers of decisions that are made elsewhere,” he said.
“We want someone who is going to interrogate that.”
The address will be one of Obama’s highest-profile speeches since leaving office.
He is also expected to stimulate reflection.
Obama’s foreign policy has been heavily criticised, while at home, Mandela’s legacy has been questioned over settling for political power while failing to shift economic power to the people. “Obama is not a perfect leader. His own legacy is as contested as that of Madiba,” Koti said.
“People question what he did‚ the decisions he took.
“We are a platform giving people the opportunity to interrogate these legacies‚ not to gloss over issues.
“That is why we wanted him to come here.”
However‚ Koti said it was important for the foundation to bring a person who was not only inspired by Madiba’s legacy personally but who had also modelled his own leadership after Madiba’s.
“Like Madiba‚ he is inspired by the issue of future leaders‚ emerging leadership‚ young people‚” he said.
During his visit‚ Obama will launch his foundation’s leadership programme‚ comprising 200 young Africans chosen from nearly 10‚000 applications from 44 countries across the continent.
Previous speakers include former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
The lecture will take place at Johannesburg’s Wanderers Stadium and is expected to be attended by 15‚000 people. –
Former US president Barack Obama recounted fond memories of his family home in Kenya on a visit on Monday to launch a state-of-the-art youth centre run by his half-sister.
Obama is on his first trip to Kenya since 2015, when he was unable to visit his ancestral home as his presidential jet was too big to land in the western city of Kisumu, he recalled.
“It is a joy to be back with so many people who are family to me, and so many people who claim to be family. Everybody’s a cousin,” he joked, to laughter from the audience.
After visiting the home of his step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, in the village of Kogelo, where his father was born, Obama recalled his first trip to Kenya at the age of 27.
From Nairobi, he first took a “very slow train” and then a bus with “some chickens in my lap and some sweet potatoes digging into my side”.
Then he had to pile into a matatu – a minibus taxi – “even more crowded than the bus”, before a long walk to “Mama” Sarah’s house.
He remembered having to catch a chicken for dinner, which he was a little squeamish to kill himself, visiting his father’s grave and bathing outdoors.
“And I looked up at the stars – it gave me a sense of satisfaction that no five-star hotel could ever provide,” he said.
Obama was speaking at the launch of the Sauti Kuu (Swahili for “Strong Voices”) centre set up by his half-sister Auma Obama.
He said that looking back on those memories, he could not be prouder of what his sister had built.
Auma said the state-of-theart centre would give the local youth access to books, internet and sporting activities.
There will also be classes on work ethics, civic education, environmental conservation and financial literacy.
The centre includes a football pitch sponsored by the German ministry of development co-operation, a basketball court funded by the Giants of Africa Foundation and other facilities, including a library and IT lab.
Obama said the centre would empower and educate young Kenyans.