CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A weeklong trip to Africa with their mother has offered a rare look at Malia and Sasha Obama, sisters who are largely kept out of public view.
Malia, who enters her teenage years when she turns
13 next month, and Sasha, her 10-year-old sibling, have been two steps behind
first lady Michelle Obama on practically all her stops in southern Africa this
week. It has given both the American and African media a long look at the
sisters whose private lives their parents have tried to keep private.
When they moved into the White House, the Obamas
asked the news media to keep a respectful distance from the girls and refrain
from photographing them at school, at weekend soccer games or at times when
they weren't with their parents. The White House even objected to coverage of
their daughters at official events in the White House.
But there was no such restriction on Mrs. Obama's
good-will visit to Africa, which began Monday night when her plane, dubbed
"Brightstar," landed on a chilly night at Waterkloof Air Force Base
in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.
The girls joined their mother, as well as their
grandmother and two cousins who are traveling with the first lady, on
well-documented public outings to Nelson Mandela's foundation and several
museums.
They met living heroes of the movement against
South Africa's system of racial separation, including Mandela himself, who
spent 27 years in prison for conspiring to abolish apartheid, and former
Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, another elder of the movement. They met
Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, and Antoinette Sithole, whose 13-year-old
brother, Hector Pieterson, became a symbol of the fight against apartheid when
he was gunned down by police in the black township of Soweto in June 1976 as
students protested peacefully against the white government.
Malia and Sasha painted and played dancing games
with children at several other stops. At a day-care center in the Johannesburg
shantytown of Zandspruit, they and their mother took turns reading Dr. Seuss'
"The Cat in the Hat" to a group of 3- and 6-year-olds. Many people
were surprised to hear the girls' voices; they almost never talk aloud in
public. Both read their parts with gusto.
Mrs. Obama acknowledged that her daughters are on
the world stage this week.
"It's a balance, but our priority will always
be protecting their privacy," she told ABC News in an interview Thursday.
"It won't be often that you see them reading 'The Cat in the Hat,' but I
think this was an important exception for them."
Aides say that there's been no change in policy
toward media treatment of the girls and that Mrs. Obama remains determined to
help them have as normal a childhood as possible.
Mrs. Obama often talks to young people about the
importance of traveling and experiencing other parts of the world. Her
daughters apparently are no exception.
Malia and Sasha have listened intently as
researchers explained Mandela's personal writings and as guides led them around
museums that explored painful chapters in South Africa's past as a country that
separated its blacks and whites. And as if to say, "Stick with me,"
they stayed close to two cousins who traveled with the family, Leslie and Avery
Robinson, 15 and 19, respectively. The Robinsons live in Oregon with their
father, Craig, who is Michelle's brother. Unlike their cousins, the Robinson
siblings aren't growing up in a fishbowl.
Kristina Schake, Mrs. Obama's communications
director, said the first lady wanted her girls on the trip with her because she
didn't want them to miss out on a remarkable experience because of who they
are. She also knew her daughters could handle a full week in the media glare
because they are poised, polite and smart.
"This was a unique week," Schake said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Charles Dharapak, Pool)
