Swell of emotion greets Obama in Africa

In his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office, President Barack Obama was today seeking to lift up the continent of his ancestors – while keeping its emotions in check.

Greeted by a rush of excitement on his arrival in Accra, America’s first black president planned a speech to Ghana’s parliament today 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.

However, while the people of Ghana may be in a frenzy over Obama’s visit, the president started his day with typical calm. Wearing a grey T-shirt and gym pants, he walked through the lobby of his hotel virtually unnoticed at 7.30am local time on his way to the downstairs gym for a morning workout.

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.

Obama was to hold talks with president John Atta Mills, who took over from longtime leader John Kufuor in January – a peaceful democratic handover all too rare for the continent.

Obama flew to West Africa after the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, approved a new multibillion 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 him a treatise on bioethics to read, the White House said.

In Ghana, enthusiastic drummers greeted 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 colourful traditional garb.

In his speech, 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 centres 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 neo-colonialism, or the West has been oppressive, or racism,” he told AllAfrica.com last week. “I’m not a believer in excuses.”

Those sentiments led Obama to avoid his father’s native Kenya for this stop. Tensions in Kenya remain high after a disputed 2007 election and subsequent ethnic bloodshed.

Yet in Ghana, Africa’s grievous past was also part of the picture.

Obama was touring Gold Coast Castle, a seaside fortress converted to the slave trade by the British in the 17th century. In its dungeons, thousands of shackled Africans huddled in squalor before being herded on to ships bound for America.

While Michelle Obama’s great-great grandfather was a slave in South Carolina, his African origins are not known.

Obama – son of a Kenyan father and white mother from Kansas – first toured Africa in 1992. The newly minted Harvard law school graduate savoured its sights, sounds and tastes. In 'Dreams from My Father', he recalled running his hand over his father’s burial plot. “I had sat at my father’s grave and spoken to him through Africa’s red soil,” he wrote.