Monday morning quarterbacking has begun in earnest on President Obama’s weekend stop in Ghana. The American media has wasted no time in diminishing the significance of the president’s address to the Ghanaian House of Representatives by focusing solely on his “tough love” admonishments and devoting a disproportionate number of column inches to the continent’s security challenges.
The major Western news outlets this morning have parroted the same line from Obama’s 35 minute speech: “Africa’s future is up to Africans.” With only this reductionist coverage available, the American public is left ignorant not only of the numerous links Obama drew between Africa and the United States in his speech, but also of the countries and individuals he credits with affecting positive change on the continent. Readers remain unaware that “civil society and business” worked in tandem to end post-election strife in Kenya, that three-quarters of all South Africans voted in the country’s most recent election, and that individuals like Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Patience Quaye have helped make Ghana safe for democracy through reporting the truth and prosecuting human traffickers, respectively.
President Obama used this platform to address specific policy areas that are crucial to Africa’s development: democracy, opportunity, health, and peaceful conflict resolution. He is honest about Africa’s difficulties with each of these areas, but is also able to demonstrate that Africa is not simply a continent defined by its colonial past or its present strife.
Obama acknowledges that corruption and tyranny exist in many African governments, but is optimistic about the possibility that all African nations will eventually have the option to choose democracy over autocracy, as Ghana and Botswana have done. It is clear that Obama believes in an Africa that can utilize its abundant natural resources and the entrepreneurial spirit of its people to create economic opportunity, especially if these are coupled, at least initially, with effective foreign aid. He touches on the progress that the continent has made with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, applauds the efforts of interfaith groups in Nigeria to fight tropical diseases, and highlights intercontinental initiatives that help compensate for serious gaps in healthcare. Obama outright rejects a picture of Africa that is little more than a “crude caricature of a continent at perpetual war” and poignantly calls for its peoples to take pride in their diversity instead of using it as a rallying point for further conflict and violence.
Obama’s unifying and uplifting rhetoric in this landmark address has one key theme that resonates perfectly with the message of The Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa: Africa Matters! Our president sees Africa as a valuable partner for America, one deserving of understanding and respect. The Africa Society’s mission of educating Americans about Africa has never been more important. President Obama has pointed to Africa and told the world that both its problems and its progress are globally relevant. Now we have to rise to the challenge of creating an educational foundation that Americans can use to better understand and respect their new partner.
