{{First lady Michelle Obama embraced her family\u2019s African roots in a speech on Wednesday, telling a group of young Africans that the \u201cblood of Africa\u201d runs through her veins as she urged changing traditional beliefs on the worth of educating women.}}<\/p>\n
Her husband had shied away from discussing his African heritage in his own remarks to the 500 Africans finishing a six-week Washington leadership fellowship on Monday, referencing his Kenyan father only once and in the question-and-answer session. But Michelle Obama said as an African American woman, her discussion with the African youth was \u201cdeeply personal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe roots of my family tree are in Africa,\u201d the first lady told the cheering crowd. \u201cMy husband\u2019s father was born and raised in Kenya. Members of our extended family still live there. I have had the pleasure of traveling to Africa many times over the years, including four trips as first lady, and I have brought my mother and my daughters along whenever I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe blood of Africa runs through my veins, and I care deeply,\u201d Obama said, addressing her listeners as her \u201cbrothers\u201d and \u201csisters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three months before congressional elections that could determine the fate of much of President Obama\u2019s platform, Michelle Obama\u2019s popularity remains high while her husband\u2019s has sunk.<\/p>\n
The White House is making women\u2019s empowerment a theme in a Washington African leaders summit next week. Michelle Obama said problems with girls\u2019 education often stemmed from traditional \u201cattitudes and beliefs\u201d that exist even in the United States and lead to issues such as the gender pay gap and an underrepresentation of women in leadership.<\/p>\n
She said men worldwide needed to \u201clook into their hearts and souls and ask if they truly view women as their equals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am who I am today because of the people in my family, particularly the men in my family, who valued me and invested in me from the day I was born,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as I grew up, the men who raised me set a high bar for the type of men I\u2019d allow into my life – which is why I went on to marry a man who had the good sense to fall in love with a woman who was his equal, to treat me as such – a man who supports and reveres me, and who supports and reveres our daughters as well,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n
wirestory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{First lady Michelle Obama embraced her family\u2019s African roots in a speech on Wednesday, telling a group of young Africans that the \u201cblood of Africa\u201d runs through her veins as she urged changing traditional beliefs on the worth of educating women.}} Her husband had shied away from discussing his African heritage in his own remarks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000053318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[100],"byline":[334],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-15640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-africa","byline-igihe-reporter"],"bylines":[{"id":334,"name":"IGIHE Reporter","slug":"igihe-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":334,"name":"IGIHE Reporter","slug":"igihe-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000053318,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15640.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15640.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15640.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15640.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15640.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15640.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000053318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15640"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=15640"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=15640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}