Mandela was my inspiration - Obama

CENTURION (AP):

The comparisons are perhaps inevitable. President Barack Obama and former South African leader Nelson Mandela each served as their nation's first black president, living symbols of struggles to overcome deep-seated racial tensions. Each was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

But as Obama prepared to honour Mandela at a memorial service yesterday in South Africa, people close to the United States (US) president say he is well aware that his rapid rise through America's political ranks pales in comparison to Mandela's 27 years in prison fighting against a repressive government that brutally enforced laws that enshrined racial discrimination.

anti-apartheid protests

Rather than view himself as a counterpart to Mandela, Obama has said he sees himself as one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Mandela's life.For Obama, who was too young to be active in the American civil rights movement, it was Mandela's struggle against apartheid that first drew him into politics. He studied Mandela's speeches and writings while studying at Occidental College from 1979-81, and became active in campus protests against the apartheid government.

"My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or a policy or politics, was a protest against apartheid," Obama said last week. "The day that (Mandela) was released from prison gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they're guided by their hopes and not by their fears."

By the time Obama became president, Mandela had retired from public life. But they did have one in-person meeting, a hastily arranged 2005 encounter while Mandela was visiting Washington. The South African leader had been encouraged to meet a young black US senator who was a rising star in American politics, and invited Obama to visit him at his hotel.