Obama's Ghana speech lacked substance

The big story this week is President Obama’s visit to Ghana, which is also covered extensively in Pambazuka News. The main focus of the blog posts was his now famous speech, including the paragraph on how Africa should stop blaming the West for its problems. A number of bloggers published the whole speech, including Wo Se Ekyir: What Your Mama Never Told You About Ghana:

‘It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these problems on others. Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner. But 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. 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.’

It’s easy too for Obama to stand up and throw the blame back on Africa and ignore his own country’s contribution vis a vis debt, free trade, arms trade, protection of US based multinationals from human rights abuses in Africa’s extractive industries, to name a few. Some estimate trade liberalisation has cost sub-Saharan Africa US$272 billion over the past 20 years. Nigerian blogger Solomon Sysdelle – Nigerian Curiosity – takes up this point:

‘Some of America's interaction with various African countries has been of benefit to Africans – what with foreign direct investment that has brought jobs to some, educational scholarships that have allowed others to attend some of the world's best institutions of learning and much more. Yet, Obama's speech completely ignored the fact that much of America's conduct on the African continent has bred distrust and discontent. Various American administrations have deliberately interfered in the politics of many an African country and unfortunately, the result has been detrimental to millions.’

More of this kind of balanced and informed analysis would have been more powerful and honest. Ghana Conscious has a roundup of Ghanian bloggers, most of which are uncritical and bordering on the sycophantic:

‘This past weekend marked the visit of Barack Obama to Ghana. A lot has been said about the significance of this visit, this being the first trip to a sub-Saharan African nation by the first black American president. I missed most of the speeches and festivities since I had 'gotten away' for the weekend and have been reading up on some blogs written by various Ghanaians on the Obama trip. I will like to share some thoughts from these awesome people.’

One blogger, Accra Revolution, describes the Obama’s visit as the ‘second coming’ – being the moment which freed the black man after ‘several years of bondage’:

‘The long awaited day has finally come. The Black and Bright Star of Africa now blossoms in the sky. From the moment, the Air Force 1 landed on the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport, I knew and believed that, the black man is now free after several years of bondage...’

As so often, the comments reveal a more interesting view of the visit, such as this one:

‘Then he repeated the same speech in Cairo about responsibility of the Arabs to find everlasting peace in the Middle East - No comment on this...Now, he is paraphrasing the same to us, as if the ills and exploits of slave trade and colonialism was of our own doing. If he is to give a good lecture, maybe he should start telling his European partners to tow away from Africa and then he follows suit in the Middle East and Latin America... Well, Obama's speeches are well-written by an impressive staff to do a formidable job. What else do we expect from him? Speeches from his heart about the realities of our current world?

‘Massa, let us Africans work out our solutions. We may afterward invite Obama to share roasted corn and groundnuts at the fire side and discuss the politics on the ground - neither Ivy League stuff nor the usual double-talk demonstrated by the Western World, those speeches could be reserved to later occasions, when every hungry stomach in Africa has been filled!’

The Francophone blogosphere has also been vocal about both the visit and the speech. A Senegalese blog went as far as posing a comparison between Obama’s speech and that of Sarkozy’s last year.

Vat.com writes (I confess to using Google translator but the essence is clear:

‘Obviously, given the challenges facing Africa, is whether Sarkozy, president of a white former colonial power, had the right under qu'Obama, black president of a former slave and segregation, to say the things so bluntly does not make sense. And we would rather welcome the consensus that prevails now, Paris and Washington on the need for a new way to support Africa in its development. Still, if Hadopi was not retoquée by the constitutional council, Obama would not have been able to download the speech by Sarkozy as easily.’

(‘C'est évident, face aux défis qui attendent l'Afrique, se demander si Sarkozy, président blanc d’une ancienne puissance coloniale, avait moins le droit qu'Obama, président noir d’une ancienne puissance esclavagiste et ségrégationniste, de dire les choses aussi crûment n'a aucun sens. Et l'on voudrait plutôt se féliciter du consensus qui prévaut désormais, à Paris et à Washington, sur la nécessité d'une nouvelle façon d'accompagner l'Afrique dans son développement. N'empêche, si Hadopi n'avait pas été retoquée par le conseil constitutionnel, Obama n'aurait sans doute pas pu télécharger le discours de Sarkozy aussi facilement’.)

The Nigerian and Kenya media – including bloggers – have also added their opinion on the US president’s choice of Ghana and not their respective countries.The Glory O’Nigeria has no problem with the choice of Ghana which has a strong democracy, but is critical of what he sees as the hypocrisy of the US government’s policy on Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. He raises the issue of the US’ contribution to corruption in the country as well as its role in the Niger Delta and the failure of the US government to address this:

‘There are serious allegations against Obama’s United States that the US is a major contributor to the corruption and bad leadership in Nigeria. Nigeria is a leading producer of crude oil and the United States has been implicated in the crises rocking the Nigerian corrupt government and the genocides that have been perpetrated in the Niger Delta.’

He goes on to comment at the US response to the 1993 elections when MKO Abiola who won the election was later killed in prison after receiving a visit from representatives of the US government.

‘There is an allegation that the US always supports any presidential candidate in Nigeria who will oppress the people if necessary just to ensure that the oil quota that goes to the US from the Niger Delta remain constant or that such a candidate promises a prospect of increase. Nigeria’s former dictator wiped out en entire community for the sake of the black gold and the US or the UN does not see that as a crime against humanity. The US did not press for the trial of Gen Obasanjo. Instead Gen Obasanjo was rewarded with a UN job to Congo’.

Finally from Kenya,Gukira leaves the speech and the political implications behind and instead focuses on the possibility that Obama and his family will visit some of the ‘slave sights’ which have long been and essential part of the diaspora ‘roots tourism’ industry:

‘I am fascinated by the kinds of affective histories that such sites are meant to provoke, and the kind of historical connections Obama will be asked to negotiate... These locations also ask Obama to associate himself with, to create affiliations with Atlantic slave histories. As an aside, it is fascinating to speculate on whether he would be urged to associate with Indian Ocean slave histories were he to come this side of Africa.’

But Obama’s heritage does not lie with the Atlantic slave history. His ancestors were not black people who were slaves on ships in the Atlantic. He is an American of dual African [Kenyan"> and white descent, so how will he express this to his huge black American following at home? A further complication and one raised by Gukira centres around Obama’s ‘Africaness’ and what he calls the ‘we that surrounds and haunts Obama’s trip to Ghana’:

‘The “we” with which we keep insisting he’s African. The “we” that creates a line between Ghana and the United States, that implicates him in Atlantic slave histories. The “we” that wants a kind of affect to overcome or intercede between differential structural positions – the “we” that wants him to forget he is the US president on an official visit to Africa.’

* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.