He can run, he can hide, he can try to pass as afar away as possible but he can’t ignore Kenya. The fact is, Obama’s Africa experience is entirely based on Kenya. He came to Kenya when was young man and nobody at that time. He was able to mingle with common man learned what to be Kenyan and by extension Africa. When he cameback again in 2006, he was already Senator and that was time to interact with Kenyan Leadership. He met President Mwai Kibaki and then Opposition Leaders Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta. Look at his speech he probably mentioned Kenya more times than he did withe name of his host Ghana.
To give any history about Africa and the colonial powers the best reference would be Kenya. As seen on the following paragraph of his Ghana speech.
My grandfather was a cook for the British in Kenya, and though he was a respected elder in his village, his employers called him “boy” for much of his life. He was on the periphery of Kenya’s liberation struggles, but he was still imprisoned briefly during repressive times. In his life, colonialism wasn’t simply the creation of unnatural borders or unfair terms of trade – it was something experienced personally, day after day, year after year.
He knows about economics details of Kenya more than any Africa country and for the sake of reference Kenya comes up again.
But despite the progress that has been made – and there has been considerable progress in parts of Africa – we also know that much of that promise has yet to be fulfilled. Countries like Kenya, which had a per capita economy larger than South Korea’s when I was born, have been badly outpaced. Disease and conflict have ravaged parts of the African continent. In many places, the hope of my father’s generation gave way to cynicism, even despair
How about the elections in Africa and the violence that follows, no other better place to talk about than Kenya.
Across Africa, we have seen countless examples of people taking control of their destiny and making change from the bottom up. We saw it in Kenya, where civil society and business came together to help stop postelection violence. We saw it in South Africa, where over three quarters of the country voted in the recent election – the fourth since the end of apartheid. We saw it in Zimbabwe, where the Election Support Network braved brutal repression to stand up for the principle that a person’s vote is their sacred right.
So those who are disappointed that Obama did not come to Kenya, may be you need to relax, all his speech was about Kenya.
For full speech of Obama in Ghana go to RafikiKenya blog
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Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article. Waiting for trackback