US president stays away from hospital out of deference to Mandela's 'peace and comfort', but meets family members who praise the Obamas' personal warmth and sensitivity Michelle and Barack Obama with South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma and his wife Tobeka Zuma in Pretoria. Photograph: Elmond Jiyane/EPA It 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...
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