Former President Barack Obama addressed an audience of more than 20,000 at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena to speak for Black History Month last Thursday.
During the event, President Obama talked about the need for optimism in the face of widespread change and division in US politics.
He added that this called for a more immediate need for international cooperation amid global crises, wars in Europe and the Middle East and a complicated geopolitical picture across the world.
Obama said: “I do think that part of what has happened that’s contributed to this, and this began happening during my presidency, was that we are living in a more multipolar world.
“The rise of China. The fact that the Soviet Union collapsed, but then it splintered into various countries and blocs. India coming into its own economically. Brazil.
“You have a group of countries that are large countries that at a certain point started saying to themselves, why is it that the United States continues to dictate the terms of what the international order should be? And what that required on the part of the United States, and I tried to model it, was that rather than just being the hegemon that’s going around telling people what to do.
“We needed to be the captain, a teammate that is persuading, encouraging, steering people to work.
“I still think that that is possible. Because, by the way, it turns out it gets better outcomes.”
The late-evening event was hosted by British broadcaster Afua Hirsch, who previously worked as Sky News’ Social Affairs and Education Editor from 2014 to 2017.
Obama also spoke in Belfast and Glasgow on October 13 and October 14 during his visit, as part of the three-part speaker series.
The event builds on the success of last year, when Obama was interviewed by British historian David Olusoga at the O2 Arena in Greenwich, London.
Cherron Inko-Tariah, editor of Black History Month UK magazine, said: “Black History Month will always provide a space to remember the giants who have shaped our collective history.”
In the 2026 edition, she talked about both change and continuity in Britain from the time Obama was first elected in 2008.
“I hope he sees that eighteen years later, communities in Britain are still answering his call. We are the ones we have been waiting for,” she added.
Inko-Tariah was also part of the team helping to set up the event and praised its success afterward, saying she left with renewed hope.
This year’s event formed part of a series that Black History Month UK is running for 2026, with this year’s theme being “honouring black communities”.
Tariah said that she hoped the former president’s speaking would bring resonance to this message in an address she made in this year’s magazine.
Near the end, when asked about his message for the current time in politics, the former president was reflective.
“We are wildly different and specific in our experiences, in our traditions, and our roots, and our families, and our experiences, and our traumas, and we are deeply connected and the same in so many ways,” he said.
Those who lived through Obama’s terms from 2009 to 2017 were reminded of the vast shift in rhetoric and action in both the UK and US a decade on.
Christopher Burke, a dual US-UK citizen and politics graduate from Brown University, said: “In a world, and particularly the United States, where civil rights is on the back burner, having Obama visit Manchester is a continual show of solidarity across countries for upholding these ideals.”
Burke lives in Brooklyn but returns to the UK to visit family still living there.
“No matter where you go, I feel like black people go through similar experiences,” he added.
The former president has now returned home to the United States ahead of the midterm elections on November 3.
He has since signed up to campaign in several states in the final few weeks before election day alongside Democratic hopefuls.
Obama finished with a note on the politics of the future in both Britain and America.
“We need political leaders who can tell a story about why we should want to work together and why should we care for each other and why we should help each other.”
Featured Image Credit: James Watson
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