Welcome back to BBC Africa Live, where we will bring you the latest news and views from around the continent.

That's all from BBC Africa Live today, and our coverage of Barack Obama's Nelson Mandela lecture in Johannesburg.

Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

Today's wise words:

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And we leave with a quote from Mr Obama, who gave an impassioned speech to a crowd of thousands in South Africa:

Here are those comments about truth Barack Obama made during his speech:

You can read more on the BBC News website - Barack Obama condemns disregard for facts - or keep scrolling down to catch up on exactly what Mr Obama had to say in Johannesburg today.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

Today was a very different atmosphere from the one that prevailed in December of 2013, when President Barack Obama delivered a speech at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service.

On that day, the crowds booed their own leader, Jacob Zuma, who had been dogged by corruption scandals for years.

Today the crowds applauded and sang a welcoming song for President Cyril Ramaphosa.

But that was not the only difference I noticed at the Wanderers Stadium.

Watching President Obama as I sat there, the winter sun beginning to set, I listened to the murmurs around me.

There was a sense of hope in the air - a Mandela-era kind of hope.

It was written on almost every face my eyes fell on. Even with all the criticism about President Obama’s involvement in the fall of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, the overwhelming feeling here was of hope and inspiration.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Image source, Reuters

The ghost of US presidents past made an appearance in South Africa.

Barack Obama offered what some of his supporters will see as not-so-veiled references to his successor in a speech honouring Nelson Mandela’s legacy, defending democratic institutions and a free press, and condemning “strongman politics” and shameless leaders who “double down” when caught in lies.

The former president also offered a commodity he always seems to have in ready supply – hope.

“Things may go backwards for a while, but - ultimately - right makes might,” Mr Obama said. “Not the other way around.”

It’s a riff on the Theodore Parker line he frequently quotes, about the arc of history being long, but bending toward justice.

If Mr Obama had a message for the world – and particularly for Americans unsure about course their nation is on – it’s that the struggle is real, but the ending is a happy one.

There are probably more than a few on the left, however, who wish Mr Obama would give more than a few speeches and carefully worded statements.

With mid-term elections that will determine control of Congress just four months away, they want him to step away from the podium and fully join the fight.

Mr Obama's speech has been widely praised by Twitter users in South Africa:

Image source, G

Mr Obama ends his speech with the famous Mandela quote: "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

"Let's remember that truth, let's see it as our North Star, so that 100 years from now, future generations will say that they kept that march going," Mr Obama concluded, to a standing ovation from the crowd.

Image source, AFP

"Just as people spoke about the triumph of democracy in the 90s, now people are talking about the end of democracy," says Mr Obama.

"We have to resist that cynicism. Because, we've been through darker times, we've been in lower valleys."

Mandela's story teaches us that we need to remain hopeful, he says.

"That journey [of Mr Mandela] was not easy. It was not preordained. The man went to prison for almost three decades."

And yet, Mr Obama says, his power actually grew while he was in jail.

"He knew if he stuck to what he knew was true... then it might not happen tomorrow, it might not happen next week, it might not even happen in your lifetime, but ultimately the better story can win out."

He says young people need to be "fired up".

"We don't just need one leader... what we badly need is that collective spirit," he says.

"So young people, my message to you is simple: keep believing, keep marching, keep raising your voice."

A BBC reporter tweets from the Mandela lecture in South Africa:

"You have to believe in facts," he tells the crowd. "Without facts there is no basis for cooperation.

"If I say this is a podium and you say this is an elephant, it is going to be hard for us to cooperate."

He adds he can find common ground with people who disagree with the Paris accord - which Donald Trump wants to pull the US out of - if they have an argument based in facts.

But, he adds: "I can't find common ground if someone says climate change is not happening when almost all the world's scientists say it is. If you start saying it is an elaborate hoax, where do we start?"

Mr Trump has said he thinks climate change is not happening.

As an aside a moment later, Mr Obama turns to the politicians of today.

"It used to be if you caught them lying, they said, oh man. Now they just keep on lying."

Image source, Getty Images

"The people who you think are smart are the people who agree with you... funny how that works," Obama says, laughing slightly.

Democracy requires us to speak to people who do not have the same point of view, he adds.

Democracy is messy, says Mr Obama, but the efficiency of an autocrat is a false promise.

"It is time for us to stop paying all of our attention to the world's capitals... and focus on the world's grassroots. That is where democracy comes from," he adds.

... we wonder what they were saying.

One social media user has a suggestion:

The tweeter is referring to South Africa's ex-President Jacob Zuma, who was heckled at the memorial for Nelson Mandela after the anti-apartheid icon's death in 2013.

"We will have to find way to lessen fears of those who feel threatened," Mr Obama says.

But he adds that there is no excuse for immigration policies based on race, religion or ethnicity.

Barack Obama has pointed out equality ensures a society can draw on the talents and the energy of all of its people.

"Just look at the French football team," he says.

"Not all of those folks looked like Gauls to me, but they are French - they are French."

France won the Football World Cup on Sunday.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Obama says he is surprised he has to mention the need for people of all races, religions and sexual orientations to "treat each other with care and respect" so many years after Nelson Mandela walked free from prison.

"It turns out, as we are seeing in this recent drift into reactionary politics, the struggle for basic justice is never truly finished," he continued.

"We have got to constantly be on the look out and fight people who look to elevate themselves by putting somebody else down."

Mr Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and became South Africa's first black president in 1994.

Mr Obama says that "we have to get past the charity mindset".

"We have to bring investment to those pockets of the world that don’t have much. There is talent everywhere," he adds.

"We are going to have to be more imaginative.. to protect the economic security and dignity that comes with a job," he says.

He says countries need to look at ideas like universal income, the work week and entrepreneurship as we move forwards.