Mr Obama flew to West Africa after the G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, approved a new US$20 billion (S$29 billion) food security plan. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
ACCRA (Ghana) - IN HIS first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office, President Barack Obama is seeking to lift up the continent of his ancestors - while keeping its emotions in check.
IN HIS speech, Mr Obama was to urge Africans to embrace a future of accountable leaders and open markets. To ensure a wide audience, the administration organised watch parties at embassies and cultural centers across Africa. But the speech was also a splash of cold water for Africans still nursing grievances over colonial rule.
'For many years we've made excuses about corruption or poor governance, (insisting) this was somehow the consequence of neocolonialism, or the West has been oppressive, or racism,' Mr Obama told AllAfrica.com last week. 'I'm not a believer in excuses.'
JOHANNESBURG - OVER 5,000 Africans have sent text messages to US President Barack Obama ahead of his much anticipated speech in Ghana Saturday during his first visit to the continent since taking office.
Macon Phillips, director of new media at the White House, told AFP that the initiative was part of an ongoing effort to make Mr Obama's speech and activities in Africa as accessible as possible to those living on the continent.
Greeted by a rush of excitement on his arrival here, America's first black president planned a speech to Ghana's Parliament on Saturday outlining his hope for a future Africa prospering in democracy. He was also visiting a hospital and a one-time slave trading post, joined by his wife, Michelle, a great-great-granddaughter of slaves.
But his speech was also pitched as a sobering account of Africa's enduring afflictions: hunger, disease, corruption, ethnic strife and strongman rule.
And during his 21-hour sojourn, no big public event was planned - in part for fear it could cause a celebratory stampede, as a 1998 stop by President Bill Clinton nearly did.
Selecting Ghana as the starting point of his black Africa travels, the president sought to highlight a continental success story.
'You've got ... a functioning democracy, a president who's serious about reducing corruption, and you've seen significant economic growth,' he told a news conference in Italy on Friday.
Mr Obama was to hold talks with President John Atta Mills, who took over from longtime leader John Kufuor in January - a peaceful democratic handoff all too rare for the continent.
Mr Obama flew to West Africa after the G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, approved a new US$20 billion (S$29 billion) food security plan. It aims to help poor nations in Africa and elsewhere avert mass starvation during the global recession.
He also had a cordial first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. In their half-hour private audience at the Vatican, the two reviewed Mideast peace and anti-poverty efforts, aides reported. They also discussed abortion and stem cell research at length, Benedict giving Obama a treatise on bioethics to read while flying here, the White House said.
In Ghana, enthusiastic drummers greeted Mr Obama, the first lady and daughters Malia and Sasha as they stepped off Air Force One just after 9pm local time. Mills and his wife led dignitaries along a red carpet, wearing colorful traditional garb. -- AP
