.Obama declares to Africa: End tyranny And corruption

.Obama declares to Africa: End tyranny, corruption
President Barack Obama smiles before he addresses the Ghanaian Parliament in Accra, Ghana, Saturday,
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Play Video Barack Obama Video:Raw Video: Obama tours castle used for slavery AP .
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By MARK S. SMITH, Associated Press Writer Mark S. Smith, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 38 mins ago
ACCRA, Ghana An American president who has "the blood of Africa within me" praised and scolded the continent of his ancestors Saturday, asserting forces of tyranny and corruption must yield if Africa is to achieve its promise.

"Yes you can," Barack Obama declared, dusting off his campaign slogan and adapting it for his foreign audience. Speaking to the Ghanaian Parliament, he called upon African societies to seize opportunities for peace, democracy and prosperity.

"This is a new moment of great promise," he said. "To realize that promise, we must first recognize a fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana: Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long."

The son of a white woman from Kansas and a black goat herder-turned-academic from Kenya, Obama delivered an unsentimental account of squandered opportunities in postcolonial Africa.

And he reached back to an older legacy, that of slavery, as he toured the cannon-lined redoubt where people were kept in squalid dungeons then shipped in chains to America, through a "Door of No Return" that opens to the sea.

"It reminds us of the capacity of human beings to commit great evil," he said from the stark white stone fortifications of Cape Coast Castle, converted to the slave trade by the British in the 17th century.

He spoke with the ramparts and the sea behind him and in the company of his family. Obama said his girls, in their privileged upbringing, needed to see that history can take such cruel turns.

In his speech to Parliament, America's first black president spoke with a bluntness that perhaps could only come from a member of Africa's extended family.

"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or if police can be bought off by drug traffickers," he said.

"No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent 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.

"That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there," he said, "and now is the time for that style of governance to end."

He added: "Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions."

Obama was on a 21-hour visit to the West African nation to highlight that country's democratic tradition and engagement with the West. His visit, his first to sub-Saharan Africa as president, was greeted as a "spiritual reunion" Saturday by Ghanaian legislators.

He, his wife Michelle, their daughters and the first lady's mother toured Cape Coast Castle as a festive crowd of thousands milled outside, pounding drums and dancing in the streets. Obama smiled and waved, pausing after he exited the motorcade, before disappearing with his family and entourage into the courtyard. Michelle Obama is the great-great granddaughter of a slave who lived in South Carolina but whose African origins are unknown.

The Obama administration sought a wide African audience for the president's speech, inviting people to watch it at embassies and cultural centers across the continent.

But he said the West is not to blame "for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants." Nor for the corruption that is a daily fact of life for many, he said.

"Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at perpetual war," he said. Yet for "far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes.

"These conflicts are a millstone around Africa's neck."

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[Nixupiz3]

lol dude you got to be specific africa is second biggest continent which name what contry

[PaulAustraliaTeams]

@Nixupiz3

Thanks for the comment...

PaulAustraliaTeams

[whitemanwaydownsouth]

LOL ok ,

[whitemanwaydownsouth]

never like this

[elspoko]

Nothing this obvious? I guess Water Gate was a hush hush thing. I guess the Vietnam, the Gulf War, and the Iraq War are little fights that the media hasn't covered in-depth. I guess the billions of bailouts that have been payed with our money over the past 3 years have been small financial transactions.

Yeah, your masters. You actually think Obama is different than the past 5 presidents.

[whitemanwaydownsouth]

my masters?? LOL i know corruption has always been around, but never this obvious or this extreme or this detrimental to our freedom.

[elspoko]

It's been here far longer than Obama's been here. The fact that your masters make you believe otherwise is proof.

[Xinoutorah]

mm I don't think you read my comment correctly :)

[whitemanwaydownsouth]

LOL , his corruoptuion is niot wrong because he is the first african american president, he can do no wrong.