Michelle and Barack Obama with South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma and his wife Tobeka Zuma in Pretoria. Photograph: Elmond Jiyane/EPAIt spoke volumes that when an audience awaiting the president of the United States burst into full-throated song, it was with the words "Nelson Mandela, Nelson Mandela, ha hona ya tshwanang le wena", which translates as: "There's no one and never will be anyone compared to him."
Not even Barack Obama, at least not here. The aching absence of the most important black politician of the 20th century was inescapable for an African audience gathered in Soweto to hear the most significant of the 21st.
The US president wisely did not try to compete with the 94-year-old lying critically ill in hospital. "Obviously he's on our minds today," he told the town hall event for young African leaders. "He still inspires us all."
Obama's first visit to South Africa as president is going ahead as planned despite the frenzy of anxiety and attention around Mandela's condition. On Saturday Obama and his wife, Michelle, did not call on Mandela in hospital out of deference to his "peace and comfort", but did meet some members of his family for about half an hour at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory in Johannesburg.
Mandela's wife, Graça Machel, said: "I have drawn strength from the support received from President Barack Obama, Michelle, Malia and Sasha. Having taken the time to telephone me to express their solidarity and meet our children, they have added a touch of personal warmth that is characteristic of the Obama family. I am humbled by their comfort and messages of strength and inspiration, which I have already conveyed to Madiba."
Obama went on to the highly symbolic location of Soweto, South Africa's biggest township, the heart of the urban black struggle against racial apartheid. Mandela moved to a matchbox house there in 1946, an era when the township remained in poverty, illuminated at night only by candles and coal fires. He was arrested in 1962 – allegedly with the help of America's CIA – and returned for 11 days after being released from prison in 1990.
Poverty persists in today's Soweto but it also contains shopping malls and theatres, hosts literary and wine festivals, and invites tourists to view its middle-class homes and visit Mandela's old house, now a museum. There is also a university campus, where on Saturday giant US and South African flags decorated a black-curtained auditorium. Obama's audience included Nigeria's Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, and Patrice Motsepe, the wealthiest black South African, as well as hundreds of young movers and shakers.
In a short speech Obama quoted Mandela's writings, urged young leaders to follow his example, and referred to the anti-apartheid hero's former home nearby. He said the 1976 student uprising in Soweto "helped open my mind to a broader world".
The president described "the yes-we-can attitude of young African leaders" and earned applause for referring to Johannesburg by its nickname "Jozi". He denied that the US fears competition from China in Africa or that it is seeking to expand on the continent militarily.
Describing Africa as a region "on the move", Obama said: "There is, as the song says, a new Africa. More prosperous, more confident, taking its place on the world stage."
A television link provided questions from Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya, pushing him on why he is not visiting his father's homeland during this tour. Explaining that he had been there multiple times before, Obama, whose itinerary also includes Senegal and Tanzania, replied: "I was trying to spread the wealth a little bit in terms of my visit."
Among those present was Matsi Modise, 28, the leader of an organisation for black South African entrepreneurs. "It's a great privilege to be here," she said. "To hear his voice means a lot. He made it possible for young black people to dream in this world. Black used to be associated with racism and oppression, but he's redefined black in terms of leadership."
By the end of his 90-minute event, Obama had evidently won some hearts and minds despite the big story elsewhere. People crowded forward to shake his hand. Mandy de Waal tweeted: "Twitter is alive with the sound of South Africans falling in love with Obama. Looks like we're star-struck!"
But outside the campus, several hundred protesters sang and waved a banner: "Away with USA. Arrogance, violence and plunder." Riot police fired stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
The other reaction in South Africa has been one of apathy, partly because all attention is on Mandela, partly because excitement about Obama in Africa has waned since the heady days of 2008. "He's now 'only' an American to us," said Eusebius McKaiser, a political commentator and radio talkshow host. "His blackness is no longer of interest."
Mandela's health inevitably weighed heavy. Earlier, at a joint press conference, South African President Jacob Zuma told Obama: "I know that he is your personal hero as well, Mr President.
"The two of you are also by bound by history, as the first black presidents of your respective countries. Thus you both carry the dreams of millions of people in Africa and the diaspora, who were previously oppressed."
The US removed Mandela from its terrorist watch list only in 2008, 15 years after he was awarded the Nobel peace prize. But it now has a president who described Mandela as "one of the greatest people in history".
Obama praised South Africa's transition from white minority rule as a shining beacon for the world. "The struggle here against apartheid for freedom, Madiba's moral courage, this country's historic transition to a free and democratic nation, has been a personal inspiration to me, it has been an inspiration to the world," he said.
"The outpouring of love that we've seen in recent days shows that the triumph of Nelson Mandela and this nation speaks to something very deep in the human spirit, the yearning for justice and dignity that transcends boundaries of race and class and faith and country. That's what Nelson Mandela represents, that's what South African at its best represents to the world, and that's what brings me back here."
Obama finishes his South African trip on Sunday, when he plans to give a speech on US-Africa policy at the University of Cape Town. He will also stop at another sacred space in the Mandela story: Robben Island, where the activist spent 18 of his 27 years behind bars.
The two men met once in Washington in 2005; both have the single photo of the five-minute encounter in their offices.
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