WASHINGTON - Eight weeks into his term in Congress last year, Keith Ellison said he was "willing to do whatever I can to make some friends for America."
The Minneapolis Democrat, known around the world as the first Muslim in Congress, just completed his ninth trip abroad, returning this week from Africa, where he was part of a seven-member congressional delegation.
Ellison, almost always ebullient, said he was pumped by the nascent democracies he saw taking hold across sub-Saharan Africa, from war-torn Liberia to Kenya, which just emerged from a violent election crisis.
"Every member of our commission felt a certain sense of reinvigoration," said Ellison, referring to the U.S. House Democracy Assistance Commission, which organized the six-country tour.
The 10-day journey, which ended Monday, culminated in a July 4th reception at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Nairobi, Kenya, where Ellison met Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama, the grandmother of presidential candidate Barack Obama.
For Ellison, Minnesota's first black congressman, it was a trip of personal discovery as much as a political exchange with African parliamentarians, the ostensible purpose of the trip.
Describing the emotion of an African-American's first journey to Africa, he made the motion of lifting soil up to his face and holding it to his cheeks, a gesture suggesting profound respect.
But of more urgent interest to Ellison, flipping through detailed notes on the trip, was the sense of fostering a connection between the political aspirations of Africans in their own continent and those in the rapidly growing immigrant community in the Twin Cities.
