The speech in full | Obama's promise to America | Opinion: Gerard Baker | Americans of all colours celebrate | Obama attacks worn-out dogmas | Vote: What was your favourite part of the speech? | Comment: Daniel Finkelstein | Inauguration creates internet frenzy | Ben Macintyre on inaugurations

As the room around him erupted in a chorus of cheers, claps and ecstatic screams, an elderly black man stood up and saluted the television screen, silently wiping a tear.

Near by, a woman in traditional Kenyan dress punched the air as her two friends clasped hands, jumping up and down in excitement. Two young black men exchanged high-fives, and Carol Muhammad clasped her daughter Nia, 8, and told her: “This moment, it is ours. You can achieve anything, remember that.”

They were an ocean away from Barack Obama’s inauguration, and did not have a vote in the election that propelled him to power. But the hundreds of Afro-Caribbean Britons who gathered yesterday to celebrate in Tottenham, North London, felt that they had just as big a stake in his triumph as their counterparts in Washington.

It did not matter that they were cheering for, and placing all their hopes in, a foreign president. It was the change symbolised by Mr Obama’s victory, and the potential for further change, that encouraged them.

Carlton Carr, 55, who has Jamaican African heritage, said: “Since Martin Luther King we have been waiting for this moment. Now we have arrived. The struggle has been worth it.”

A 500-strong crowd gathered at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Tottenham, an Afro-Caribbean stronghold in the capital, for a live screening of events in Washington.

The atmosphere was electric as Mr Obama was sworn in and the room erupted in cheers and whistles. Then solemn silence fell over the crowd for his inauguration speech. Then they celebrated with drinks, food and jazz.

Eugenia Moffatt, 32, closed her florist’s shop for the day. “I see America as the top of the world,” she said. “Now they’ve got a black president, it’s amazing. It encourages everyone to fulfil their dreams. It just shows that anything is possible. England is next.”

Last year her young daughters wanted to be a doctor and a solicitor. Now their ambitions have changed. “They want to be president of New York and president of London,” Ms Moffatt said. “It’s something that’s very encouraging for them.”

Schola Titus, a 31-year-old designer, marked the occasion with an “Obama breakfast” at her Kenyan parents’ home in North London. “We had pictures of Obama plastered all over the walls and my auntie had one of his speeches on YouTube just repeating on loop,” she said. “It is really special to us. Obama brings us hope. But it’s not just for black people, it’s for everyone. Kids everywhere can now see what they can achieve.”

Julieta Sempama, 21, echoed the optimism, saying: “It doesn’t matter that he is in America. It is a global message that his election sends to young black people everywhere, that we can do anything we set our minds to.”

The eight-year-old Nia has greater expectations than most. She said: “Everybody knows that young children, like ones in their teens, are very naughty and they carry knives and guns. I think Barack Obama can change that. His father wasn’t served in a restaurant, right? So Barack must know how it feels. He will know how to make things better. And tell those youngsters to stop. He gives us hope.”

Daniel Henry, 22, of East London, said that the rise of Mr Obama meant that black people no longer had an excuse for not achieving their dreams. “There are obstacles but they can be overcome. When he won the race in November, I saw my little brothers [aged 10 and 12], and I told them, ‘Gentlemen, the bar has been raised’.”

Thousands of black Britons across the country gathered for similar celebrations. There were gospel choirs in Bristol, inspirational speakers in Liverpool and popcorn and American flags at a community event in Bedford.

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