17th July, 2018
Former U.S. president Barack Obama says the world is going through “strange [and] uncertain” times in a speech honouring anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.
“They are strange, they are uncertain. Each day’s news cycles bringing more headspinning and disturbing headlines,” Obama says in his first major public address since leaving office.
“The international order is falling short of its promise. It is in part because of the failure of
governments and elites,” Obama said.
He said: “we are now returning to a more dangerous way of doing business.”
South Africa celebrates the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birth with a flagship speech by Obama and an outpouring of memories and tributes to the late anti-apartheid leader.
Mandela, who died in 2013, remains a global icon for his long fight against white-minority rule and for his message of peace and reconciliation when he was released after 27 years in prison.
His birthday on July 18 is marked annually around the world, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation called this year for people to “take action and inspire change” in Mandela’s name.
Obama set the tone for the celebrations with a speech in Johannesburg on July 17 that aides say will be his most important public address since leaving the White House in 2017.
Obama will also host a town hall event on Wednesday for 200 young leaders selected from across Africa to attend a five-day training programme.
The former U.S. president met Mandela only briefly in 2005 but gave a eulogy at his funeral saying Mandela “makes me want to be a better man” and hailing him as “the last great liberator of the 20th century”.