Obama to make history in Africa

The first African-American president will arrive later today for his first visit to Africa. So understandably, there is quite a bit of buzz.

In Ghana, his public schedule on Saturday includes meeting Ghana's president at Christianborg Castle in Accra, then attending an event on maternal health at La General Hospital, and speaking to the Ghanaian parliament. Obama and Michelle Obama will travel to Cape Coast, where they will meet with Head Chief Osabarima Kwesi Atta II at his residence.

Obama's father was Kenyan, though he was raised by his Kansas-born mother. At the G-8 summit in Italy, Obama related his own family history as he pushed for more aid so that African countries can combat hunger and become self-sufficient in food.

"My father traveled to the United States a mere 50 years ago and yet now I have family members who live in villages -- they themselves are not going hungry, but live in villages where hunger is real," he said at the closing news conference today. "And so this is something that I understand in very personal terms, and if you talk to people on the ground in Africa, certainly in Kenya, they will say that part of the issue here is the institutions aren't working for ordinary people. And so governance is a vital concern that has to be addressed.

"Now keep in mind -- I want to be very careful -- Africa is a continent, not a country, and so you can't extrapolate from the experience of one country. And there are a lot of good things happening," he added. "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.

"So I don't want to overly generalize it, but I do want to make the broader point that a government that is stable, that is not engaging in tribal conflicts, that can give people confidence and security that their work will be rewarded, that is investing in its people and their skills and talents, those countries can succeed, regardless of their history."

The White House put out a list of events being held in conjunction with Obama's speech by US embassies across Africa, below:

EXAMPLES OF WHAT U.S. EMBASSIES IN AFRICA ARE DOING TO ENGAGE AFRICAN PUBLIC ON THE PRESIDENT'S GHANA SPEECH
The U.S. Mission to the African Union (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) will host a screening/panel discussion at the African Union’s historic plenary hall for over 200 representatives of 53 African countries.
Embassy Cotonou (Benin) will bookend its screening for over 100 with video highlights from President Obama’s inauguration and the AF Bureau’s 50th anniversary celebration (October 2008).
Embassy Freetown (Sierra Leone) will host screenings for over 500 at community cinema centers throughout the country, as the centerpieces of its traditional/new media outreach that has reached the bulk of the country’s population.
The Somalia Virtual Presence post (co-located in Kenya with Embassy Nairobi) will host a screening/discussion with the 50 Somali officials/media that are scheduled to be in Nairobi that day.
Embassy Djibouti (Djibouti) will host its screening/discussion the Ambassador’s residence for 100 guests.
Embassy Pretoria (South Africa) will cap the new media outreach that has reached millions with screenings for over 1000 invited guests in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Capetown and Durban.
Embassy Lilongwe (Malawi) had to rent a hall and utilize its American corner to accommodate the 200 guests invited to its screening.
Embassy Luanda (Angola) will conclude the traditional/new media outreach that has reached tens of thousands with a screening/discussions at the Ambassador’s residence.
Embassy Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) will host a screening/discussion for 100 at its Villa Washington community center.
Embassy Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) will use its network of three American Corners in addition to the Embassy to screen the speech for over 500 guests.
The State Department’s African Regional Media Hub arranged for Safaricom, Kenya’s leading mobile phone network provider, to streaming the speech live from a VOA feed. Safaricom’s subscriber base is 17 Million, and it reaches into the most remote corners of the country.
Our Embassy in South Africa partnered with MXit, a continent-wide social networking service, to solicit question an comments for the president. Hundreds of thousands of Africans responded.