The Obama Diary

August 2006: Senator Barack Obama peers out of what was Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa (Photo: Pete Souza)

Washington Post: President and Michelle Obama will leave Washington on Wednesday for a week-long trip to three African nations, focusing on economic development, democracy building and private sector investment.

Among the highlights for the president will be bilateral meetings with the leaders of Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, visits to Senegal’s supreme court and a power plant in Tanzania, tours of a slave museum in Gorree Island and the site of the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for two decades on Robben Island.

Obama also will tour a community center with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town.

The centerpiece of the trip will be the president’s speech at the University of Cape Town, where he will deliver a message that the United States intends to significantly boost its presence on the continent….

…. Michelle Obama, too, will have a full schedule. She will speak to girls at a Senegal middle school and with students at a South African high school, and she will participate in a first ladies summit hosted by the George W. Bush Institute. Former first lady Laura Bush also will participate, along with first ladies of African nations, officials said.

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2006:

August, 2006: Sen. Barack Obama, Michelle, daughters Sasha, Malia and other children help plant a tree with 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, Nairobi, Kenya

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Photos from then Senator Obama’s visit to Africa in 2006 - all taken by Pete Souza, then working for the Chicago Tribune:

…. touring Robben Island with Ahmed Kathrada, a former prison mate of Nelson Mandela

….. visiting a health clinic in a township near Cape Town, Sen. Obama talks to Sisisipo Mngeni, 3, whose mother Nomathamsanqa Mngeni (top right) is HIV positive

….. viewing a 1976 photograph of the fatally wounded Hector Pieterson at the museum in Soweto, named for the 13-year old victim of apartheid violence. Antoinette Pieterson, Hector’s sister, accompanies Obama

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