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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) ― U.S. Sen. Barack Obama started a two-week tour of Africa on Sunday with a visit to Nelson Mandela's former prison island, paying tribute to the "incredible courage, resilience and hopefulness" of the anti-apartheid movement.

Obama, the only black member of the Senate and one of the Democratic party's rising stars who is often mentioned as a possible future president, said the brief two hour visit to Robben Island made him realize that every day worries in the United States were "fairly trivial stuff compared to the very elemental, basic struggle" of Mandela and other former inmates.

"It humbles you," he said after standing in the tiny cell in the isolation wing which was home to Mandela for 18 years.

He was guided around the island by Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 with Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other leaders of the resistance to white racist rule.

Kathrada, who now heads the Robben Island Museum, recounted the hardships they suffered on the remote, wind-swept island.

It was 12 years before they were allowed a bed; they worked in the quarry for 13 years, breaking stones; they were punished even for violating even trivial rules; they were allowed only one 500 word letter every six months and that was censored to make sure it contained no news or political references.

Kathrada's first letter was confiscated because it contained a reference to a new British Prime Minister. He received it 18 years later, he told Obama.

"Even when (Neil) Armstrong went to the moon, they wouldn't tell us," he grinned. For a few days they wouldn't confirm it to us as it was dangerous news."

The color of their skin dictated their food and their clothing, Kathrada told Obama. Kathrada was classified as Indian which -- according to apartheid's laws made him superior to black South Africans. He was allowed to wear long trousers and socks and got bigger helpings of food.

Mandela, Sisulu and all the black detainees suffered the humiliation of wearing shorts and petty discrimination like not being allowed syrup or jam at breakfast, he said.

"Apartheid was from the cradle to the grave," Kathrada commented.

"It is a reminder of the extraordinary struggle that not only Mandela went through but people all over the world go through to obtain things that we take for granted," said Obama.

"To stand in Mandela's cell and have a sense of the incredible courage, resilience and hopefulness of these men puts into perspective the work we do back home," he commented.

Obama hopes his trip, which will include a trip to his father's home in Kenya, Congo and Chad, will help improve ties between the United States and the continent, and give him a better perspective on problems such as HIV/AIDS.

He is due to visit AIDS patients and meet activists in the impoverished township of Khayelitsha on Monday.

The freshman Democrat from Illinois is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Africa. His late father was a goat herder who went on to become a Harvard-educated government economist in Kenya.

"I don't think you have to have a father from Africa to care about Africa, but maybe I have the capacity to shine the spotlight," he said.

Hundreds of foreign dignitaries -- and around 300,000 normal tourists -- visit Robben Island every year. Kathrada said he personally had escorted former U.S. President Bill Clinton; Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to name but a few political leaders, as well as stars like Quincy Jones, Denzel Washington, Jane Fonda and Will Smith.

His next "guest" will be Russian President Vladimir Putin in early September.

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