WASHINGTON (AP) — A program
designed to foster a new generation of young African leaders will be
renamed after former South African President Nelson Mandela.
President Barack Obama, who has
said he was one of the untold millions of people around the world who
were inspired by Mandela’s life, is set to announce the name change at a
town hall-style event Monday in Washington with several hundred young
leaders from across sub-Saharan Africa.
The youngsters are participating
in the inaugural Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, part
of the broader Young African Leaders Initiative that Obama launched in
2010 to support a new generation of leadership there. The fellowship is
being renamed as a tribute to Mandela, who died last December at age 95.
Obama announced the fellowship
during a stop in South Africa last summer. It connects young African
leaders to leadership training opportunities at top U.S. universities.
In remarks at Monday’s event,
Obama also was announcing new public-private partnerships to create more
programs for young African leaders, including four regional leadership
centers across Africa, online classes and other resources, the White
House said.
Mandela spent 27 years in jail
under apartheid, South Africa’s former system of white minority rule,
before eventually leading his country through a difficult transition to
democracy. In 1994, he became the first democratically elected leader of
a post-apartheid South Africa.
This week’s events with the next
generation of young African leaders are a lead-in to the inaugural
U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, being held Aug. 4-6 in Washington. About 50
African leaders are expected to attend what the White House says will be
the largest gathering any U.S. president has held with African heads of
state and government.
(Associated Press)
Obama to rename Africa program for Nelson Mandela |
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