Mandela hails Obama after election victory

It is a momentous day in African history,and it is of overwhelming joy too that l am alive to have witnessed both democratic elections with Tata Mandela,off Barack Obama's great victory & the South African elections in 1994.This is one day in my life which shall be told as oral history from generation to generation.

Mandela should look at RSA as well and not just celebrate with the winners.He is too old to deal with the local issues and quick & easy on International issues! What is wrong with our nation?

Mandela is 90 years old... leave him alone... I really hope he has many more years left... but, unfortunately I dont think he has, and in his time he has done more than his share for this country so dont try get him involved in anything that is happening in our country... leave him in peace... let him do with the rest of his years as he chooses without preasure or expectation. That said I find it funny that so called land of freedom (USA) has it's first black presidant 14 years after we did.... and there are still people in America who didnt want him rasicim is alive and well in the land of the free! I wish Obama well and congratulate him on his victory... but I think he is going to have a hard time....

Kyle, there's huge difference between South Africa and USA having a black president!

African American have been fighting for CIVIL rights, not for freedom. They were not fighting for any land, let alone to have an African American president. You see, they are a minority. Historically, America does not belong to Africans. Their ambition was to be treated with decency, to have equal rights and generally be able to have a fair shot in everything America has to offer.

With regards to S.A., Africans were the aborigins of this land and yet were treated with such utter contempt and indecency (you know that dark page of history). Ours was not the fight for rights alone, rather, a fight for freedom to take back what was taken from us, that which belonged to us and rightfully ours. Our fight should have been with little casualties, yet we shed so much blood and created many scars and such divide. AMerica had its fair share of bloodshed but theirs was not in battlefeld as ours have been. Which brings me to this conclusion that, white Americans, are many times more liberal than their South African counterparts, by even allowing a black president. ANC shot into prominence because it has a huge African support since we are a majority. In America, WHITE people voted Barack Obama in too! In that, America having a black president was not expected, it was not in the table. The dream was for a white and black child to play together, that would have been sufficient.
Therefore, Obama did the unthinkable by becoming a candidate and subsequently winning the election! So, Kyle, when SA had a black president, it was a rightful and befitting thing to be done. When Obama won....my my, it reminds me of this following quotations:

'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so
that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other
people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others

Thandanani Umlaw

Obama's victory should be such a greater achievement than ours

It is great that South African leaders celebrate about the new president of the USA victory but at the same time we should be looking at what is happening in your own continent. Rwanda is still denying its involvement in the DRC but none of the African leaders are talking about it… or calling for an enquiry to identify what is really happening in the DRC. Who is sponsoring Nkunda and his group that is perpetuating all the troubles in Eastern part of the DRC? Don’t just celebrate! People are lying in the Streets, women raped, shops; schools closed… come on Africa… Where are the voices of peacemakers? Where are the voices of advocators of justice? Are you also paid to keep a blind eye on what Rwanda is doing or you are just not aware of what is happening in your continent?

Regarding the above comment by Kyle Logan ... Nelson Mandela said that the country is in good (temporary) hands, so he is addressing local issues effectively. As an American voter with an interest in seeing in South Africa what Zille suggested was racism (and hopefully tribalism) taking a back seat to reality, and the world moving forward. In an imperfect world Obama represents that democracy can work. The US two party non parliamentary system looks awkward. Hopefully SA adopts an attitude that to support an alternative party is neither disrespectful nor snakelike (Zuma). Having Blacks or Africans suddenly in power after the Apartheid club, begs the question of reverse discrimination when comparing it to the American situation. As a race, Blacks are not leaving the USA. In contrast, Africans make up a sizable portion of legal immigrants here (It has been said that 1 billion people would immigrate to the US given the chance). ANSYL and COSATU and SACP we hope will go the way of North Koreas leadership. And Mr. Mandela may yet have a say in the future of South Africa. No pressure.

@Thandanani Umlaw et all, now that the majority of level headed Americans have shown us the way, will we now be politically mature enough to elect the best person for the job at home as well, never mind the colour of his/her skin? Or is it OK for the right person in the USA to be black, but when possibly the right person for South Africa might be white or coloured, he/she is not "right"? Are we realy mature enough to cross that bridge, or will we wallop in self pity and in our own ethnic insecurity? For what its worth, I just don't see enough outrage at the injustices plagueing our society.

So what you're really saying is that having a black presidant in the US means nothing... what they should really be aiming for is having a native american presidant... that would eb huge... but wait the land of the free wiped all the native americans... so I guess that will never happen. And yes I know they are not all gone but from being the majority and the land owners to being such a minority that they dont really make a difference anymore.... what a wonderfull example the US sets for the rest of the world.

It appears at this stage that part of the world begins to see that it is only the the mind that counts, not the colour of a human being. We express our greatest praise to a new and young inspiring american president Obama. We must also pick up a lesson that leadership is something that is to be passed on to the deserving people when time tells so. I hope Africa perceives Obama's victory with learning eyes by all people capable and concerned. Particularly South African parties and Zimbabweans parties.

Obama's victory at the polls is a lesson that this WHOLE planet is home to ALL of humanity.

The fact that Native Americans, for instance, happened to be found in the Americas in no way suggests that other human population groups cannot, and must not, subsist with them in the Americas. Similarly, the Native Americans should be just as welcome anywhere else on the face of this planet.

I definitely look forward to a time when a "British" will occupy State House in Harare, Zimbabwe, after Mugabe's soon demise, on no other unction except a popular vote. The same thing should be true right here in RSA. I look forward to a day when it will be just as feasible for an Afrikaner to once again occupy the Union Buildings by popular vote simply because he presented the BEST case for a reasonable presidency compared to all other presidential prospects during an election campaign.

I'm not sure if Zille really means to assume this position, or this issue of tribalistic partisanship in the South African political arena is as much a sore point among the white and related populations as it is among the majority blacks....

@Hein Huyser

About crossing that bridge, what this (Obama)victory has demonstrated to us all is that we should never under estimate the human spirit. Therefore, yes, we will reach a point where colour, creed and background will not hold sway when it comes to selecting a leader, only competency,citizenship and that you were born in S.A. will be required, that day will come. Having said that, there is still a lot of work in ridding from Africans the skepticism and cynicism, both these qualities brought by enduring many years of been treated as a fourth rate citizen and seeing other races prospering and been affluent, while Africans are stagnantly watching this progres. Therefore, I for one, cannot bring myself to allow another South African who is not black to be a president of this country, simply because I don't think any other race will have an interest of an African in their heart. Call me primitive, but this is a deep distrust I have developed over the years of other races that was brought on by other races. This is one thing affluent people in this country do not get as to why the ANC continues to enjoy such popularity despite its bad reputation and incompetency in so many areas. So Hein, when I see a lot of other races supporting initiatives, esp by the "incompetent" govt in trying to get every S.Africans on the bandwagon of development and poverty alleviation, instead of trying to prove how incompetent the black man is, then, just then, they will have earned the right to ask us to lead us. As things stand, nobody has earned that right.