Sen. Obama Visits Mandela Prison Site
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Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) started a two-week tour of Africa with a visit to Nelson Mandela’s former prison island, paying tribute to the “incredible courage, resilience and hopefulness” of the anti-apartheid movement.
Obama, the only black member of the U.S. Senate, was guided around Robben Island by Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 with Mandela and other leaders of the resistance to white racist rule.
Obama’s late father was a goat herder who went on to become a Harvard-educated government economist for his native Kenya.
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