South African youths, especially those residing in the Johannesburg area, who long to meet the charismatic ex-American President, Barack Obama, will soon be lucky. Why? South African organizers have announced that Mr. Obama, will deliver this year’s Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture at a 4,000-capacity arena in Johannesburg in July. Obama, who met with Mandela in 2005, gave a rousing address at his funeral. He will speak once more at the lecture to mark 100 years since the anti-apartheid icon was born.
The Head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Sello Hatang, said the foundation had been seeking someone with “an Africa heritage” to deliver the lecture that is expected to focus on the problems of democracy.
The announcement was made at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg, a former jail where anti-apartheid activists such as Mandela’s late former wife, Winnie, were incarcerated.
The complex, which is now a museum, hosts the country’s Constitutional Court. Hatang told reporters that Mandela was elated when Obama was elected US President in 2008 because he saw it as a moment in American history.
Hatang said the lecture, coming a year before South Africa’s national elections, “will be a significant moment where we will be talking about active citizenry.” He also said one lesson expected from the lecture is “that all of us carry a responsibility to deal with anti-black racism”.
Mr. Obama would spend five days in Johannesburg holding meetings, workshops and training for 200 young Africans on the issue of leadership in the present age. His lecture will be delivered at the Ellis Park Arena on July 17, a day before Mandela’s birthday.
The Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture had attracted eminent speakers in the past including Bill Clinton, Thabo Mbeki, Kofi Annan, Bill Gates and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
