Until the day he left South Africa for Canada as a teenager in the mid-1970s, Barry Thomas' birth certificate told the world not only his name, but also assigned him his official designation. He was "Cape Coloured," it said plainly, chaining him to a lower rung of Apartheid's racial hierarchy.

"I grew up going to coloured washrooms, going to the coloured side of the post office, the police stations, and the coloured side of the hospital," he told CTV.ca from Toronto, where he is now a manager at Toronto Community Housing.

As someone who had been judged and categorized by the colour of his skin since the day he was born, he fought against his country's racist system. Even as a high school student, he struggled alongside freedom fighter Stephen Biko before heading to Canada.

"Since I've been in Canada, I've seen incredible things (like) the end of Berlin Wall. I've seen end of Soviet Union. I've seen (Nelson) Mandela freed from jail. And now I can crown it off with seeing Barack Obama as president of the United States," he says.

Thomas sees Obama's rise as another monumental step in the fight against racism, not just in the United States, but in Canada and around the world.

"I see Mandela. I see Mandela," he says about Obama.

"They are completely comfortable in their own skin. They know what they have to do."

Thomas isn't the only African Canadian who has forged "a special connection" with the new American president. In fact, about 200 people showed up to a forum Thomas and his colleagues at Toronto Community Housing organized in early February to discuss what an Obama presidency means for Canada and African Canadians.

Thomas, who is married to an Indo-Canadian and has two children growing up in a multicultural world that is vastly different than the one he knew as a child, says Obama's presidency is the key to teaching his children about their history and their future.

"We have an entire young generation who have grown up without apartheid. The complication is about how to teach them our history without giving them the same pain. You must teach them history and context," he says, noting that Obama is showing children of all races that their potentials are based on merit, not skin colour.

"I am hoping that Obama gives (our children) an opportunity to see that you just need to be good. You don't have to be twice as good (as whites). You just have to have a consciousness of who you are."

Obama as inspiration

The idea of knowing "who you are" is an important concept that many Canadians of European ancestry may not have had to grapple with in the same way as African Canadians, says Fitzroy Facey, a soft-spoken young Toronto artist.

"Obama has empowered me to take chances with my art, to welcome criticism," Facey says, noting the boost that Obama's victory gave his self-confidence.

"His election affected me positively in terms of being able to know who I am."

Facey says that many of his friends have traditionally looked to pop culture for inspiration and direction. In fact, Tupac Shakur, the rap icon who was gunned down in the 1990s, has inspired Facey's artwork.

"I felt Tupac's music was relevant to me and it has affected me. His lyrics were more positive and they spoke of where he was coming from. He spoke of overcoming," Facey says, adding that Obama put words into action.

His friends, the 20-year-old says, feel the same way.

"Everywhere I go, people are still talking about Obama. He's not like any other president ... if he were, we probably would have forgotten about him already," he says.

Don't underestimate the sheer power of images, cautions Grace-Edward Galabuzi, a political science professor at Ryerson University, and a panelist at the Toronto forum on African Canadians and the Obama presidency.

"Obama's election represents a real validation of black citizenship. How people look at themselves is an important way of understanding the society in which one lives. Someone like Obama rising to power already suggests possibilities ... a possibility of a fuller citizenship." Galabuzi says.

As importantly, he notes, the fact that Obama was "elected" to what many people consider the most powerful position in the world could be a positive sign for African Canadian politicians.

"The fact that this guy would become president through an election process that involves 300 million tells us there is something different about the times," Galabuzi says.

He notes that many African Canadians also feel a strong tie to Obama because of his African heritage. Obama - whose father was Kenyan - has a personal history that may be considered closer to the experience of some African Canadians than it may be to that of blacks in the U.S.

"His Kenyan aunt was recently issued a deportation order in the U.S. ... that's another common immigrant experience. How many presidents have had to deal with that?" Galabuzi said with a laugh.

"There is a more intense identification with Obama because of that history. There is this understanding of him really as an immigrant. There is a sense of a special connection ... But it is not just in one community. That (excitement) is shared by other Canadians."