Obama Pursues African Policy Goals on First Trip to Sub-Saharan Africa
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Obama landed Friday evening in Accra, Ghana, on his first trip to Sub-Saharan Africa, a region where Obama is seeking to highlight democratic role models while turning a cold shoulder to nations with more troubling human rights records.
Kenya is notably absent from the itinerary, despite being the homeland of Obama's father. Obama said in a recent interview with allafrica.com, that Kenya's leaders "do not seem to be moving into a permanent reconciliation that would allow the country to move forward. "Earlier this year, a U.N. investigator's probe found a "systematic, widespread and carefully planned strategy" of executions by Kenyan police in the wake of the country's most recent election.
On the other hand, Ghana "has now undergone a couple of successful elections in which power was transferred peacefully," Obama said in the interview.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He landed in Ghana soon after 9 p.m. local time and met a group of dignitaries, led by President John Atta Mills. An ethnic African group danced and banged drums for Obama's arrival.
After traveling to Russia and then Italy for a meeting of major industrial powers, Obama is making the last stop of his overseas trip in Ghana, on Africa's west coast.
Obama will make a speech to lawmakers there and tour an oceanfront fort once used to ship slaves to the Americas.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The United States' first African-American president has only invited two African leaders to the White House so far: Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
His African roots give President Obama a lot of goodwill among the people of the continent. In some African countries, vendors shout "Obama" when they want to get the attention of American tourists. But experts say Bush will be a tough act for Obama to follow. Bush quietly tripled U.S. aid to Africa. His program for AIDS relief increased the number of African people receiving anti-retrovirals from 50,000 to 1.5 million. A Bush administration program that provided free bed nets cut malaria rates in half in 15 African countries. The disease had been killing a million children under five each year.
President Obama says he'd like his legacy in Africa to be putting the continent on a trajectory to be integrated into the global economy. He says he'd like the U.S. to be "an effective partner...in building the kinds of institutions, political, civil, economic, that allowed for improving standards of living and greater security for the people of Africa."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FOX News' Wendell Goler and the Associated Press.