Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Joel Barkan, a senior associate with the CSIS Africa Program, was quoted by the Guardian, "The Other Obama-Kennedy Connection."
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Joel Barkan, a senior associate with the CSIS Africa Program, was quoted by the Guardian, "The Other Obama-Kennedy Connection."
In his command of the US political stage over the past year, Barack Obama has inspired many a comparison to John F Kennedy. Both young senators brought a lofty message, an appealing young family and a movie-star aura to the presidential race. But the two men forged a less known link — before Obama was even born.
The bond began with Kenyan labour leader Tom Mboya, an advocate for African nationalism who helped his country gain independence in 1963. In the late 1950s, Mboya was seeking support for a scholarship program that would send Kenyan students to US colleges — similar to other exchanges the US backed in developing nations during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Mboya appealed to the state department. When that trail went cold, he turned to then-senator Kennedy. [...]
Joel Barkan, an Africa scholar at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said Kennedy's gift to Kenya helped forge a relationship with America that has remained strong for decades.
"There's no other African country where there is such admiration for the US ... There has always been a disproportionate number of Kenyan students in America to study. Their children come here, their grandchildren come here," Barkan said.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions; accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in these publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors.
