Walking out into the bush still feels the same as when I first came to Kenya in 1989, on the day the Berlin Wall came down.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My conscious life has all been in Kenya, and it's my point of reference. But going back to Mexico was very formative.
The Berlin Wall go down, that was the most wonderful thing that could happen, absolutely. I celebrated with everybody in Berlin that day when the Wall was down.
I traveled with then-Senator Obama to Israel in 2008. I will never forget our time in the holy city of Jerusalem and following behind him as he approached the Western Wall - and even in the dark hours of that very early morning, it was a place bustling with energy afforded by one's faith.
I went to Zimbabwe. I know how white people feel in America now; relaxed! Cause when I heard the police car I knew they weren't coming after me!
To this day, I get very nervous coming back into my own country.
In August 1961, I visited President Kennedy at Hyannis Port. The Berlin Wall was going up, and he was about to begin a huge military buildup - reluctantly, or so he said, as he puffed on a cigar liberated by a friend from Castro's Cuba.
When I am in Africa, I always have the feeling that it's where everything started. When I am in New York, I know it is where everything ended up.
I was in Germany when the wall came down.
When the Berlin Wall came down the Americans cried, 'Victory,' and walked off the field.
My first visit to West Berlin was in February 1983. The drive through East Berlin, the fact that West Berlin was surrounded by a wall that was more than 100 miles long - the absurdity and intensity of it really knocked me out.