Obama Exhorts Africans to Fight Corruption, Embrace Democracy

JONATHAN WEISMAN WILL CONNORS

Associated Press

President Barack Obama speaks to the Ghana Parliament in Accra on Saturday.

ACCRA, Ghana -- The first African-American president came to the continent of his father to exhort Africans on Saturday to rid themselves of corruption, embrace democracy and move from the grand, often violent, struggles of liberation and tribalism to the quieter, more potent movement of stability and economic growth.

In a half-hour speech described as a major foreign policy address, U.S. President Barack Obama stood before Ghana's boisterous parliament, with a backdrop of festive kente cloth and adoring crowds cheering outside. The speech was broadcast on radio stations throughout the continent.

U.S. embassies in Africa held watch parties, movie theaters carried it live and what Internet access there is in Africa crackled with Twitter feeds and e-mailed snippets. The message was one that perhaps only Mr. Obama could have delivered: Africa's excuses are over. Africans must lift themselves up.

"In my country, African-Americans, including so many recent immigrants, have thrived in every sector of society. We have done so despite a difficult past, and we have drawn strength from our African heritage. With strong institutions and a strong will, I know that Africans can live their dreams in Nairobi and Lagos; in Kigali and Kinshasa; in Harare and right here in Accra," he said. "It won't be easy. It will take time and effort. There will be suffering and setbacks. But I can promise you this: America will be with you, as a partner, as a friend." (Read the full text of Obama's speech.)

View Full Image

News International/ZUMA Press

Vendors in Accra, Ghana, hawk memorabilia Friday in anticipation of President Obama's visit, his first to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office.

More

• The full text of Obama's speech in Ghana
• Wash Wire: Obama Visits Slave-Trade Landmark
• Africa Trip Stresses Obama's Challenges
• Accra Gives Obama Warm Welcome

"It was a very good speech," said Camilo Pwang, a law clerk who watched the speech on TV. "I really felt good about it. It wasn't something like America would just come and help us. It's up to us as Africans to solve our own problems."

Mr. Obama has never been shy to play up his African immigrant heritage as a piece of his story, on par with his white mother's Kansas identity. Here, he used it to express empathy and ease the sting of his criticism. His Kenyan grandfather was a cook in British colonial Africa, addressed as "boy," though he was a respected elder and jailed briefly during Kenya's independence struggle.

His father herded goats, but came to the U.S. for his education when Kenya's economy was larger and richer per capita than South Korea's. He praised Ghana for its democracy and stability, and the economic growth that is beginning to follow.

But he did not gloss over the continent's problems, from tribalism and brutality to repression and corruption. Nor did he hesitate to assign blame.

"The West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants," he said. "In my father's life, it was partly tribalism and patronage in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career, and we know that this kind of corruption is a daily fact of life for far too many."

He then promised four areas where the U.S. would partner with sub-Saharan Africa to promote its sustainable development: Support for democratic governance; aid that promotes self-sufficiency, not dependency; conflict resolution; and public health, for which he has promised $63 billion over six years, for AIDS treatment and prevention, tropical diseases and maternal and child health.

"When a child dies of a preventable illness in Accra, that diminishes us everywhere," he said. "And when disease goes unchecked in any corner of the world, we know that it can spread across oceans and continents."

Obama's First Visit to Sub-Saharan Africa

1:30

President Obama received a lavish welcome by his Ghanaian counterpart John Atta Mills. While many had expected an inaugural African visit to Kenya, the president selected Ghana to highlight an African nation embracing stability.

In the audience, members of parliament, some men bare shouldered in kente-cloth drapes, cheered and waved. Two former presidents sat in the audience, the most recent of which lost re-election just six months ago, to attest to the peaceful transfers of power that attracted Mr. Obama to this nation for his speech.

The speaker of the parliament hailed "a spiritual reunion with the first black American president of the United States," introducing him as Barack Hussein Obama, three names with diverse African and religious roots. His election, she said, was "shaking the slumber and despair out of people around the world."

And the speech was received with knowing cheers, revealing more about Ghana's internal politics than Mr. Obama likely intended. As he ticked off the litany of African complaints, a dysfunctional judiciary, disrespect for political minority rights, bribe taking in business and law enforcement, clapping and cheering alternated between the two political parties like it does during a State of the Union address before the U.S. Congress.

Sefa Ewurama Gohoho, business director of Canoe magazine, said much of that applause reflected growing dissatisfaction with the current government, just six months into its term. Most of the anger stems from the global economic crisis that has hit Ghana hard, she said, but Mr. Obama's talk of corruption stirred things up.

"There is corruption that exists across both parties, but when one is not in power, they're suddenly all for eradicating it," she said.

Mr. Obama address to parliament was restricted to an exclusive guest list of dignitaries. Much of the rest of the country huddled Saturday around TV sets and radios to listen in.

There was some disappointment that Obama chose not make a more public address. But the reception across the capital was, nonetheless, ecstatic.

Thousands of Ghanaians lined the blockaded streets of Accra on Saturday, waiting in hushed silence for Obama's motorcade to pass. This was as close as most Ghanaians would get to the man they have been waiting so anxiously to welcome.

Many here hoped that Obama would make a speech in front of a large crowd, as former President Bill Clinton did during his visit in 1998. Clinton spoke in front of an estimated 1 million people on his trip here.

Streets have been re-paved, curbs re-painted, and Obama-themed t-shirts, flags and local clothes churned out in the thousands. One woman waiting to see Obama arrive this morning had painted on her back, "Akwaaba Obama," or Welcome, in the local language.

The headline of the country's biggest newspaper Saturday reads, "Welcome Home, Obama." An advertisement for the Ghana Cocoa Board shows Obama's face created from cocoa beans. Ghana is the world's second-biggest cocoa exporter after Ivory Coast.

Ghana, already one of Africa's more popular tourist destinations, is also looking forward to a significant tourism bump from Obama's visit. One tour operator told a local radio station that she had already come up with a new slogan for her company: "Obama Came Here. When Are You?