July 11, 2009 at 10:57 am | In Barack Obama | Leave a Comment
Tags: Africa, BBC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jacob Zuma, Kenya, Martin Plaut, Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua
Good analysis from BBC’s Martin Plaut:
For Ghanaians, there is little doubt that they deserve to be Mr Obama’s first real African destination since assuming office. Nigeria was not really suitable, given the question marks over the way in which President Umaru Yar’Adua was elected. Kenya, home of Mr Obama’s father, experienced post-election violence. Ethiopia has jailed the leader of the opposition, and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma is new in the post and something of an unknown quantity.
Not only is Ghana clearly democratic, but it has some of the African oil on which the US increasingly depends, and there is the symbolic link with slavery, from which so many African-Americans trace their heritage. So Ghana ticks Mr Obama’s boxes – a suitable stage on which to launch the president’s Africa policy on the continent itself.
