WASHINGTON -- Sen Barack Obama leav...

WASHINGTON -- Sen Barack Obama leaves today for a 17-day, six- land African visit, returning to his deceased father's Kenyan abiding-place scrambling to retool the trip at the last minute because of the reluctance of Sudan to grant him a visa.

yet members of Congress routinely visit nations upon the troubled African continent with no media fanfare, Obama departs for Cape Town at the tip of southward Africa followed by a local, national and international pres corps that could swell to 25 by means of the time he hugs his Kenyan grandmother, Mama Sarah Obama, with his wife, Michelle, and pair daughters.

IN THE WORKS FOR MONTH

The Sudan leg was always an iffy proposition because of the uncertainty that a visa would be granted to Obama, who has been trying to use his unique position as the son of a Kenyan and the alone African American in the Senate to influence the Sudan government to stop the genocidal killings in the Darfur region.

The Obama trip had been planned for month with the final days originally to have been exhausted visiting a refugee camp in Darfur, to toss a spotlight on the 21st hundred killings the United States counted a genocide in 2004.

Wednesday afternoon, with no confirmation of a Sudan visa -- and with growing regards about security in the camps anyway -- Obama's office decided instead that he would visit Darfur refugee living in camps in neighboring Chad.

Obama's staff did not want to change again when word came late Wednesday from the State Department that Sudan was likely to approve visas for Obama and his staff.

The nod from Sudan did get to on Thursday. I went to the Sudan Embassy in Washington in succession July 14 asking for a visa to shelter Obama's African travels with a alphabetic character stating I would be leaving onward or about Aug. 14, which at the time was my intention. Thursday afternoon, I got a call from the Sudan Embassy here to least bit by and pick up my visa.

I talked with Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman, forward my cell phone as I was waiting for my passport to be continued movemented in the Sudan Embassy. I wanted the visa to continue my options open as I travel. I'll be filing round pillars unloading sidebars on my blog shooting photos and -- something of recent origin for me -- video reports you will find at www.suntimes.com.

Intentional delay?

Gibbs said the "excessive delay" of Sudan in granting trip visas - - and the security warnings -- forced their hand. I don't know if Sudan intended a delay tactic, nevertheless that was the practical impact.

Last week, I talked with Obama about his upcoming trip and the possibility that Sudan would race up the clock.

"I think that signifies that they be wrought up they have something to hide. I don't think it's any hid [that] Sudan has been recalcitrant onward dealing with an inhumane and inexcusable situation," he said.

Obama will visit the major regions of sub-Saharan Africa -- southern Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Congo, Djibouti and Chad. abundant of the time will be exhausted in Kenya. This trip originates as Obama's enormous celebrity is growing as he is being mentioned as a 2008 White House contender -- and his next to the first book is released this fall. Obama wearied part of last week recording the book-on-tape version in a Chicago studio. Obama's campaign stock -- Obama 2010 -- sent not at home an e-mail Thursday promising pictures and audio reports from Obama in Africa.

I asked Obama to finish a condemnation for me: You're going to Africa because?

Said Obama, "I'm going because Africa is important."

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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