It is a crisp, cold and clear morning in Johannesburg. We drove the 40 minutes north to Pretoria. After leaving the heat of Senegal (click HERE for a summary of that leg of the trip), I am reminded of what a very different world South Africa is from West, and East, Africa. It is about 55 degrees, and I should have worn a turtleneck.
The Union Buildings in Pretoria (the official seat of the South African government) is a reminder of the improbable transition in power that took place in this country nineteen years ago. This grand, neo-classic masterpiece, inspired by the Italian Renaissance architectural style, was built by black labor to house the white apartheid government. It took the incomparable leadership of Nelson Mandela to see this masterpiece handed over to a black majority government to occupy its storied halls.
Union Buildings, Pretoria / Photo credit: Arnold Lewis
There is a loose analogy to our White House in Washington DC. It, too, was built with black labor to house a government that did not consider blacks as citizens. It took the improbable leadership of Barack Obama to usher in a black family to reside in that fabled residence.
And therein lays the irony, the coincidence, the tragedy, perhaps the destiny of this moment. Barack Obama has been inspired throughout his professional career by the transcendent leadership of Nelson Mandela. When Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008, it should have been a given that the two men would meet and celebrate the unique gifts that each has given to their nations, and their people. Both men ascended to lead two nations which held little prospect for a black leader when they set their eyes on the top seat. But because of circumstances in 2008, Mandela’s advanced age which prevented him from traveling overseas, and Obama’s political imperative to stay close to home, neither man could travel to the other’s country until this day.
On this day, Nelson Mandela lies in a hospital, by any measure, on what is undeniably one of the last days of his life. At the same time, Barack Obama, is received on his first visit to South Africa as the commander of the United States. While he is officially only the president of the United States, he is spiritually owned by black people throughout the world, and especially here in South Africa.
It seems almost predestined for this to be the moment when the baton is passed from Mandela to Obama, to carry on his legacy as a great leader who inspires blacks and people of all races, whose influence and significance stretches beyond the borders that he governs. It is sad that Mandela’s well-being did not sustain itself long enough for the meeting that both men imagined, but the bond between the two men is immortally eternal.
The post Obama in Africa: The Press Corp Chronicles – Day 5 appeared first on Africa.com Blog.