JOHANNESBURG: Former US president Barack Obama on Tuesday used a tribute to Nelson Mandela to warn that the world had plunged into “strange and uncertain times”, in what is likely to be seen as a veiled attack on Donald Trump.

Obama made no direct reference to his successor but warned that “politics of fear and resentment” were spreading, driven by leaders who scorned facts and told lies with an “utter loss of shame”. He also blasted climate-change denial, race-based migration policies, unbridled capitalism and “strongman politics” — stances often cited as the hallmarks of Trump’s controversial presidency.

Obama spoke to a crowd of more than 10,000 people at a cricket stadium in Johannesburg in the centrepiece event of celebrations 100 years since Nelson Mandela’s birth.

“It is in part because of the failures of governments and powerful elites ... that we now see much of the world threatening to return to an older, more dangerous, more brutal way of doing business,” Obama said.

On migration, he appeared to take a sharp jab at Trump saying “it is not wrong to insist that national borders matter ... but that can’t be an excuse for immigration policies based on race or ethnicity or religion.” On climate change, he attacked the entrenched scepticism shown by Trump and others American conservatives in the face of scientific evidence. “You have to believe in facts, without facts there is no basis for cooperation,” he said.

Mandela’s birthday

Tuesday’s speech came on the eve of “Mandela Day” — his birthday, which is marked around the world every year on July 18.

Obama has made relatively few public appearances since leaving the White House in 2017, but he has often credited Mandela for being one of the great inspirations in his life.

Mandela, who died in 2013, remains a global icon for his long struggle against white-minority apartheid rule and for his message of peace and reconciliation after being freed following 27 years in prison.

Obama 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”.

Both men were the first black presidents of their countries.

African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Mandela’s widow Graca Machel were among the guests from Obama’s speech — his highest-profile address since leaving office.

“We need more hope because we are living in difficult times,” Nomsa Nkosi, 45, a blind woman in the audience, told AFP. “Mandela was one of a kind and we need the youngsters to come and see what is meant by motivation.”

Before arriving in South Africa, Obama paid a brief visit to Kenya, his father’s home country.

Obama will also host a town hall event in Johannesburg on Wednesday for 200 young leaders selected from across Africa to attend a five-day training programme.

Mandela was imprisoned under apartheid rule in 1962 and only freed in 1990, when he went on to lead the African National Congress party to victory in the first multi-race elections in 1994.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2018