ACCRA, GHANA — The words had never been spoken by a U.S. president: "I have the blood of Africa within me."
President Obama's roots as the son of a Kenyan economist and his personal journeys to the continent over the last 25 years enable him to speak authoritatively about Africa in a way none of his predecessors could. It's no surprise that his first presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa filled many people in the vast region with hope and pride.
But being a "son of Africa" has also raised expectations. And even as he was flooded with a warm welcome on the streets of Ghana's capital, Accra, his much-anticipated speech to the parliament Saturday left some Africa-watchers disappointed, questioning whether Obama is committed to making the continent one of his foreign-policy priorities.
"I didn't see anything fresh or new," said Kenyan political columnist Barrack Muluka. "It was the same things about good-governance and responsibility that we've been hearing since the 1980s."
In his speech, an oratory heavy with references to his family history, Obama called on elected leaders across the continent to clean up their governments.
Obama spoke of how his grandfather worked as a cook for the British in Kenya and, though a respected elder in his village, he was called "boy" by his employers for much of his life.
Though only a peripheral player in Kenya's struggle for liberation from British colonialists, Obama's grandfather was imprisoned briefly.
But, Obama said, the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, nor for wars in which children are pressed into combat.
"In my father's life, it was partly tribalism and patronage in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career," he said, "and we know that this kind of corruption is a daily fact of life for far too many."
The future of Africa depends not just on free elections, Obama said, but also on what happens in the interim.
"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers," Obama said. "No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20% off the top, or the head of the port authority is corrupt.
"No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery," he said. "That is not democracy. That is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end."
