"America's Mandela": South African responses to the rise of Barach Obama

Abstract

In this article reactions in the South African media to the emergence of Barack Obama as contender in the 2008 US presidential election, then as official Democratic Party presidential candidate and then as US President-elect are analysed. The context of US-SA relations is sketched first to highlight the type of issues of US-SA relations that would be important for South Africans.Then the opinions of politicians, economists, editors, academics and letter-writers representing the public, which were published in South African newspapers in 2008 and 2009 at the crucial moments in the US presidential election campaign, are  analysed  in  terms  of  perceptions  about  Obama’s  role  in  international  affairs,  US  relations  with  Africa  and  bilateral  USA-RSA  relations.  The  evaluation  of  these  South  African  opinions  is  done  with  a  view  to  testing  some  conclusions  reached  in  the  literature  on  the  process  of  globalisation  and  local  responses  to  it.  Our  argument  is  that  the  analysis  of  South  African  responses  to  Obama  published  in  the  newspapers  confirms  that  globalisation and  glocalisation are  simultaneous  processes  in  the  
contemporary world. On the one hand a set of liberal moral values have emerged in the post-Cold War world which unites the majority of moderate citizens of countries across the globe in their evaluation of important events. On the other hand these generic values only assume real significance for people when their implications for the local situation become clear.