High expectations ahead of Africa trip

Great expectations will surround President Obama when he makes his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa in a trip to Ghana that begins Friday.

Obama, the first black president and the son of a Kenyan, already has signaled that Africa will enjoy a heightened focus from his administration, and he acknowledged this week that he brings a background and knowledge of the continent different from that of any of his predecessors.

{mosads}“I’m probably as knowledgeable about African history as anybody who’s occupied my office,” Obama said this week in an interview with AllAfrica.com.

Obama wrote of his connection to the continent in the best-selling Dreams from My Father, which detailed his initial trip to Kenya, a country he has since visited several times. He speaks of feeling a close identification with Africa in the book, which documents his visit with his father’s family.

The trip to Ghana represents Obama’s second visit to Africa in his first six months in office — he traveled to Egypt in June. Obama has already visited the continent twice, as much as former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton did during their eight years in office.

Good governance is the theme of the president’s speech in Ghana, a country of 23 million on Africa’s west coast. Obama picked Ghana for the historic trip instead of Kenya, the site of political turmoil and riots after a controversial election in late December 2007.

Obama told AllAfrica he picked Ghana because it has now “undergone a couple of successful elections in which power was transferred peacefully.” He said he wanted to highlight a country that is governed well, and where leaders are committed to the rule of law and recognize they are accountable to their people. After a disputed election in December 2008, the defeated candidate ultimately conceded the race, sparing Ghana the violence common in other parts of the continent.

Local officials expect Obama’s visit to Accra, Ghana’s capital and largest city, to result in a boost in tourism to their country, particularly from African-Americans. The country’s deputy minister of tourism told Voice of America that Senegal received a massive tourism boost after President Clinton visited that country.

Voice of America reported that the president’s visit is already boosting sales in Accra of souvenir T-shirts of Obama and his family, and other reports described massive excitement in the country over the visit.

Obama, who will be accompanied by his wife Michelle during the visit, is scheduled to deliver a speech to Ghana’s parliament. He’s also set to make a highly symbolic visit to the Cape Coast Castle, which many Africans passed through to board ships that took them to a life of slavery in the Americas.

In his agenda for Africa, Obama wants to build on the legacy of President Bush, who was praised for “changing the conversation” on aid to Africa. Bush helped increase the number of people who receive HIV/AIDS assistance from the U.S. from 50,000 when he took office to 2 million when he left.

{mosads}Tom Hart, director of government relations for the ONE campaign, which is dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and disease, said Obama can be even more effective in Africa because of his background and the way he “owns his heritage.”

“I do think President Obama himself has a unique ability to speak to the continent in direct and comfortable terms that those other presidents sometimes could not,” Hart said.

The president’s background means he “can be very critical of poor governance” and expect more from African leaders, Hart said.

Obama’s background also puts pressure on him to produce good results for the continent, according to Tony Fratto, a former spokesman to Bush, who added that the global financial crisis has increased the importance of providing aid to Africa.

“It’s important that Africans see that America’s commitment to Africa will continue,” Fratto said. “At the same time, the expectations for President Obama among Africans you meet is very high, as you can imagine.”

Clinton has reportedly expressed some regret for not making Africa more of a priority when he was president, and he has made the continent a large part of his post-presidential efforts.

Aides to Obama said the president will visit the continent more in the future. He’s also met African leaders in Washington, and noted to AllAfrica that he had already hosted the leaders of Zimbabwe and Tanzania in the Oval Office.

Both Clinton and Bush were criticized for their response to genocide in Rwanda and Darfur, respectively.

At the G-8 meeting on Wednesday, Obama signed onto a commitment to increase accountability of G-8 pledges to provide help to the developing world. The communiqué also reiterated support to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to halve extreme poverty and stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

In his interview with AllAfrica, the president acknowledged that the international community has not always taken the right strategic approach to the continent, but said that, “ultimately, I’m a big believer that Africans are responsible for Africa.”