South Africans inspired by Obama trip down memory lane

That is why the crowd applauded even more when she said: “You can be the generation that ends HIV/Aids in our time – the generation that fights not just the disease, but the stigma of the disease, the generation that teaches the world that HIV is fully preventable, and treatable, and should never be a source of shame.”

She continued: “You can be the generation that holds your leaders accountable for open, honest government at every level, government that stamps out corruption and protects the rights of every citizen to speak freely, to worship openly, to love whomever they choose.

“You can be the generation to ensure that women are no longer second-class citizens, that girls take their rightful places in our schools.

“You can be the generation that stands up and says that violence against women in any form, in any place – including the home – especially the home – that isn’t just a women’s rights violation. It’s a human rights violation. And it has no place in any society.”

And as one of the people who was there on that bitterly cold Wednesday morning of the Soweto uprising on 16 June 1976, it was incredibly moving to know that Mrs Obama laid a wreath at the Hector Peterson memorial in Soweto.

The wife of the most powerful black man on Earth, paid tribute to the youngest black victim of an uprising that changed the course of South Africa’s history.

To a thunderous applause back in Regina Mundi the first lady quoted old struggle giants such as Albertina Sisulu, who recently passed away: “If you strike a woman, you strike a rock!”