Where is Brazils Barack Obama?
By John Fitzpatrick August 2, 2008 The US presidential candidate, Barack Obama, has just made a triumphal tour of Europe during was he was feted by the regions political leaders and cheered on by crowds in Germany. Whether Obama becomes president will depend on American voters and not foreign fans and his race will undoubtedly play a part. It has taken a long time for a black presidential candidate to appear in the US. In Brazil, which is said to have the largest number of people of African descent outside Nigeria, there are no black or mixed-race political leaders with any chance of standing as presidential candidates in the foreseeable future. While the US has never had any president with black blood that we know of (although George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are believed to have fathered mulatto children) this may not be the case in Brazil. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso once said that he had a “foot in the kitchen”, a way of saying that he had some slave blood and his fea
