All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

America will be a solid partner for Africa, but "Africa's future is up to Africans," President Obama said today in a speech before the Ghanaian parliament in the capital, Accra.

Mr. Obama said the United States has substantially increased its pledges of financial support for Africa — which, he said, is in the best interests of both Africa and the U.S. — but the success of that aid will be measured on whether it helps the continent become more self-sustainable.

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Since entering the White House in January, the Obama administration has made use of a myriad of social networking and Internet communications tools, such as blogs YouTube and Twitter, to interact with the public. Come Saturday morning, add an appearance on a virtual world to the list.

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When President Obama announced today a new $20 billion commitment from the G8 countries for alleviating hunger in Africa, he emphasized that the money would help small farmers become more self-sufficient.

He emphasized this point with a personal story about his father's travels from Kenya to the United States.

"When my father traveled to the United States from Kenya to study, at that time the per capita income and Gross Domestic Product of Kenya was higher than South Korea's," Mr. Obama said. "Today obviously South Korea is a highly developed and relatively wealthy country, and Kenya is still struggling with deep poverty in much of the country. And the question I asked in the meeting was, why is that?"

South Korea, he said, has created transparent and accountable institutions that promote economic progress -- and, he said, there is no reason countries in Africa cannot do the same. Now that the G8 summit in Italy has concluded, he will travel to Ghana to underscore that point.

"Part of the reason that we're traveling to Ghana is because you've got there a functioning democracy, a president who's serious about reducing corruption, and you've seen significant economic growth," Mr. Obama said during a press conference in L'Aquila, Italy.

Mr. Obama's trip to Ghana is a source of pride for the nation, university students and leaders told the Hotsheet today, and should be a wake up call for the rest of Africa -- and the rest of the world -- about the changing nature of international relations and foreign aid.

Ghana's President John Atta Mills smoothly assumed power this year after winning a run-off election in January with just slightly over 50 percent of the vote. Ghana's strong democracy has facilitated the country's economic progress, Patrick Awuah, president of Ashesi University in Accra, Ghana, said in an phone interview.

"With the emergence of democratic government in Ghana, we have seen the opening of markets so that everyone can participate in the free market," Awuah said. "The politics of this country are such that leaders spend more time than they used to thinking about the public good."

If leaders in Africa are to continue improving their economic standing with the public interest in mind, he said, they should embrace Mr. Obama's message that foreign aid should be distributed in ways that will help countries become more self-sustainable.

"The idea of extending a helping hand rather than a hand out is a good one," he said. "It's not just a change that needs to happen in the United States, it's also a change that needs to happen in Africa -- for African governments not to be holding out their hand in a sort of demeaning posture from the perspective of their citizens."

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The White House has released a transcript of President Obama's interview with AllAfrica.com in which Mr. Obama discusses the objectives behind his first presidential visit to Ghana this Saturday.

The interview was published July 2 on Allafrica.com, the largest online distributor of African news.

Mr. Obama said he picked Ghana as the first destination on his trip to sub-Saharan Africa because he wanted to highlight the country’s success as a democratic nation.

"Ghana has now undergone a couple of successful elections in which power was transferred peacefully, even a very close election," Mr. Obama said. "I think that there is a direct correlation between governance and prosperity. Countries that are governed well, that are stable, where the leadership recognizes that they are accountable to the people and that institutions are stronger than any one person have a track record of producing results for the people."

The president made clear that he hopes to encourage Ghanaians by publicly acknowledging the success of the country’s recent leadership.
He said he understands that not every country will transition smoothly to democracy, citing his father's native land of Kenya as an example of "backsliding."

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