South Africa on Wednesday marked 100 years since Nelson Mandela’s birth with a “town hall” forum hosted by Barack Obama and a walk led by the anti-apartheid leader’s widow among a series of tributes.
His birthday on July 18 is marked annually around the world as “Mandela Day”, and the Nelson Mandela Foundation called for people to “take action and inspire change” in his name on the centenary year.
Mr Obama, speaking to 15,000 people at a stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday, gave an emotional address recalling the “wave of hope that washed through hearts all around the world” when Mandela was released from jail in 1990.
“Through his sacrifice and unwavering leadership and, perhaps most of all, through his moral example, Mandela… came to embody the universal aspirations of dispossessed people,” Mr Obama said.
“(He) shows those of us who believe in freedom and democracy we are going to have to fight harder.”
Mr 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.
The former US president met Mr Mandela only briefly in 2005 but gave a eulogy at his funeral, hailing him as “the last great liberator of the 20th century”.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, a protege of Mr Mandela who came to power this year, said he would mark “Mandela 100” by donating half his salary to charity and called for others to do the same.
“He led us from the wilderness of conflict and oppression into the land of promise, of freedom, democracy and equality,” Ramaphosa said.
