On Saturday, local Eindhoven politician, Mpanzu Bamenga, got to shake Barack Obama’s hand. The former American president invited Bamenga to ask him a few questions.
Bamenga is a member of the D66 political party. He arrived in the Netherlands, as a refugee, along with his family from Zaire in 1994. In 2016, Bamenga was elected as the political talent of the year in Eindhoven.
He was invited to the United States for a U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs exchange programme. He was also invited as a speaker at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation event 2016 and the White House.
This weekend’s meeting happened in Berlin, Germany. There, 300 ‘young leaders’ met to ask Obama questions. In a tweet, Bamenga described the meeting as an honour. “A person who has been a source of inspiration in my life,” the local politician wrote in the tweet. “Looking forward (to) working together in the future to bring positive change in the world.”.
