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At South Africa's University of Cape Town on Sunday, President Obama noted that he was speaking at the same place where, in 1966, then-Sen. Robert Kennedy, D-N.Y., delivered what some historians believe was the best speech of his life.

Obama was discussing about how, as a young man, he had come to believe that "I could be part of something bigger than myself; that my own salvation was bound up with those of others."

Then the president brought up the late senator:

"That's what Bobby Kennedy expressed, far better than I ever could, when he spoke here at the University of Cape Town in 1966. He said, 'Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.' "

Here's how the State Department's latest human rights report about the Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan begins:

"Although the constitution declares Turkmenistan to be a secular democracy and a presidential republic, the country has an authoritarian government controlled by the president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov."

(NPR's Emily Harris files this report from Jerusalem.)

Peace between Palestinians and Israelis? No? Progress? After four days of shuttle diplomacy, Secretary of State John Kerry says the two sides are getting closer to peace negotiations.

"We have made real progress on this trip," Kerry said Sunday as he prepared to leave Israel and fly to Brunei for meetings with Southeast Asian leaders — and to talk with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about Syria.

"I believe that with a little more work, the start of final status negotiations could be within reach," Kerry added.

The big issues on both sides are well known. Security is a paramount Israeli concern. There has been talk of keeping Israeli troops along the eastern edge of any future Palestinian state, to secure the border with Jordan. Having enough land for a viable state is a top Palestinian issue. Over the past few months Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has quietly stopped issuing bids for new Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but building approved by municipalities continues. (Click here for much more of NPR's "Israel-Palestinian coverage.")

Kerry would not offer details about the progress he says he sees on those or other issues, but said that both sides are working hard. He spent more than six hours overnight Saturday in meetings with Israeli officials, including Netanyahu. The two met three times over four days. Kerry also met three times with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas; in Amman, Jordan and in Ramallah, in the West Bank.

At the end of it all, Kerry said that gaps have been narrowed considerably, but that there is more work to be done. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat was quoted as saying the atmosphere was positive, but that there had been s no breakthrough. Netanyahu said that Israel is ready to begin negotiations immediately, but that there will be no agreement that endangers Israel's security.

Kerry says this is difficult work.

"These are very complicated talks because the stakes are very, very high for everybody," he told reporters at the Tel Aviv airport Sunday afternoon. "This is about a country, two countries and two peoples and peace and the possibilities of avoiding war and how you guarantee things where years and years of conflict have hardened feelings and hardened emotions and hardened realities. So it's hard to work through that."

Kerry suggested that he would not have minded staying longer.

"If I didn't have to go to have these meetings and to take part as I need to, I'd stay here and we'd continue to work," he said. He's leaving behind at least one senior adviser, his Deputy Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, Frank Lowenstein. Lowenstein said he'll be in the region "a couple of days."

Growing up in apartheid South Africa with widespread state censorship, it was hard to get to know our political leaders. The first time I actually saw a photograph of Nelson Mandela was in high school in the mid-1980s.

A braver classmate had managed to sneak a few grainy images into our school — a full-face, younger Mandela, his fellow Robben Island inmate Walter Sisulu and the South African Communist Party leader Joe Slovo.

We knew bits and pieces about the history of the struggle against white supremacy in our country, since apartheid-era history textbooks told only the "manifest destiny"-like tale of white settler triumph and the "statesmanship" of figures like the midcentury Prime Minister Jan Smuts.

So, the years since the end of apartheid meant catching up on our own history. After I came to the U.S. in 1995 to study at Northwestern University, I spent my Friday afternoons in the library, watching films that had been banned in South Africa.

And I familiarized myself especially with the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. He is the most recognizable figure in 20th century South African history — and perhaps in world history — which I learned was the result of a conscious propaganda campaign on the part of the African National Congress in the 1970s to sway Western public opinion — in addition to Mandela's own talents and charisma.

Since Mandela's release from prison in 1990 the myths and stories about him have grown, through many narratives constructed by journalists and the numerous films made about him and the many books written about his life. But these three, I think, provide a good introduction to this remarkable man, who always insisted that he was part of a larger struggle and a movement.