AfricaSpeaksHowcomyoucomRaceandHistoryRootsWomenTrinicenter
Homepage
Message Board
Buy Books
RELATED LINKSCOMMUNITYREASONING FORUMCHAT ROOMARCHIVES
Photo Gallery | About Us | Terms of Use | Register/Create a Profile  
This is a new script for this board. Some posters would have to re-register.
We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Contact us at: rastafarispeaks@yahoo.com


Follow us on twitter and on facebook at:
AfricaSpeaksRastafariSpeaksCheik Anta Diop

Rastafari Speaks

Obama's mission of tough love in Africa *LINK*

'I'm not a believer in excuses,' U.S. President says as he prepares for his first visit to the continent.....

Cape Coast, Ghana — From Monday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Monday, Jul. 06, 2009 08:08AM EDT

When he walks through the Door of No Return at a former slave-trading fortress this weekend, Barack Obama will be entering ground zero of the African-American experience: the place where it all began.

The symbolism of his visit to Ghana's Cape Coast Castle is unmistakable. The son of a Kenyan, the first African-American president, whose wife and children are descended from slaves, will be returning to Africa as the most powerful man in the world, the redeemer of the tragedies of history.

But he is also bringing an unexpected message of tough love to this continent: no more excuses, no matter what happened in the dark dungeons of the colonial fortresses, like the one he will visit on Saturday, where millions of slaves were shackled and shipped overseas.

“I think part of what's hampered advancement in Africa is that for many years we've made excuses about corruption or poor governance – that this was somehow the consequence of neo-colonialism, or the West has been oppressive, or racism,” Mr. Obama told an African website, AllAfrica , in his only interview dedicated to Africa before his visit.

“I'm not a believer in excuses,” he said. “I'd say I'm probably as knowledgeable about African history as anybody who's occupied my office, and I can give you chapter and verse on why the colonial maps that were drawn helped to spur on conflict. … And yet the fact is we're in 2009.”

The West cannot be blamed for the disastrous policies that have brought catastrophe to Zimbabwe and other African countries over the past 15 or 20 years, he said. “I think it's very important for African leadership to take responsibility and be held accountable.”

He called for a “practical, hard-headed approach” to improving the lives of Africans – beginning with a war on corruption. “If government officials are asking for 10, 15, 25 per cent off the top, businesses don't want to invest there.”

When his father left Kenya and travelled to the United States in the early 1960s, Kenya had a higher GDP than South Korea, Mr. Obama noted. South Korea today is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, while Kenya is so unstable and corrupt that Mr. Obama decided not to visit the land of his father on his first presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa.

Instead he chose Ghana – widely seen as a success story, where democracy and political stability have led to economic growth and declining poverty.

Ghana, unlike most African countries, has managed the trick of holding peaceful elections and accepting the result, even when the result is close, and even when the opposition wins.

Since 1992, Ghana has held four consecutive democratic elections. Last December, after a closely fought election that was decided by a mere 40,000 votes, Ghana accepted a peaceful transition to a new president, John Atta Mills, with far less turmoil than often erupts in many other African countries.

The percentage of people living below the poverty line has dropped dramatically, from 52 per cent to 28 per cent, in less than two decades.

Ghanaians might be jaded about U.S. presidents – this is the third presidential visit in the past 11 years, with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both touring Ghana when they were in office. But this one is different. Like most African countries, Ghana was transfixed by Mr. Obama's march to the White House last year, and now Obama fever is gripping the country, with his portrait on thousands of billboards and posters.

“It's a dream come true,” said Eugene Kwarteng, a radio journalist in Cape Coast. “We are very proud of Obama. I have a big Obama calendar on my wall at home. He's the epitome of hope for Africa.”

In the main market in the city, vendors are selling Obama belt buckles and Obama watches.

A hawker of second-hand clothes, Esther Awuni, shouts his name as an enticement to customers. “Obama is here, come and get something nice,” she cries to the passing crowd.

In the souvenir shops of the former slave-trading castle, merchants are selling wooden bowls with his name engraved on the side. “Obama We Love U,” says the writing on one bowl.

When he tours the castle's dungeons, Mr. Obama will be stepping on layers of black soil composed of the blood and sweat and human waste of the slaves who were shackled here, the guides say. As many as 250 slaves were crowded into each of the small dungeon rooms, where many died. The survivors were forced through the Door of No Return onto ships bound for the Caribbean and America.

It could be an emotional experience, especially for Mr. Obama's wife, Michelle, who is descended from African slaves. Many African-Americans weep when they see the dungeons of the castle.

“Obama will know the pain and agony of the ancestors of the African-Americans,” said Daniel Opoku, who works at a university radio station in Cape Coast. “But in his own history, he went from a nobody to a somebody.”



FAIR USE NOTICE:
This site may at times contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml


Copyright © 2003-2014 RastafariSpeaks.com & AfricaSpeaks.com