African Dignity

Barack Obama had a meeting with himself, for which he methodically prepared. In order to make his much-anticipated mark on Africa, he chose Ghana, where George W. Bush visited in 2008, after Bill Clinton in 1998 and Martin Luther King in 1957. Surprising consistency toward a country that was among the first in sub-Saharan Africa to free itself of the colonial yoke and has known two peaceful successions in the last eight years.

But without a doubt the passage of Barack Obama will be swept away by all the intensity all that preceded it. In many respects, the moment was seized. First by the emotion tied to evidence and example: “My father grew up herding goats in a tiny village,” the most powerful man in the world declared, captivating the crowd, which he did again afterward by the structural force of the speech.

Like he did in Cairo facing the Arab-Muslim world, the American president wanted to connect himself with the feeling of abandonment of the poor people while bluntly condemning the specific evils of the black continent. In spite of his aristocratic look and his Harvardian profile, he has again tried to situate himself on “the inside” of misery. Thus, corruption, nepotism, fatalism, the devotion to providential men, war crimes, the false pretext of colonialism….it was all passed over. And the orator left a hero.

Such frankness was made possible in the name of an essential principal: “I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart,” Barack Obama declared. That’s the key phrase, which defines the fundamental difference with the Dakar speech given by Nicolas Sarkozy in July 2007. Obama has overtaken the official report, refused simple exhortation, rejected paternalism in order to suggest a concrete perspective; a trust pact. “America will be with you. As a partner. As a friend.” In July 2007, the French president caused an uproar by declaring, “The African man hasn’t entered enough into history.” Obama has returned the peace after affirming to the Africans that “in this moment, history is on the move.”