As I detailed on this site, I didn't want Obama to win last year's Presidential election. I was sad when he did so. I have linked disapprovingly to his economic agenda. Moments in which I've respected him or his actions have generally been caused by his being framed in a favourable light by less impressive Democrats (like his Vice President), or when he has reversed clear wrongs, like Guantanamo. But his recent speech in Ghana on Africa and the continent's politics and future was extremely important and, if it is to bear fruit in policy terms, extremely promising. I know that it was a couple of days ago now but I don't think that anyone else on CentreRight had mentioned it yet so I wanted to flag it and point to a few tremendous powerful and tremendously true passages:
It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these problems on others. Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner. But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants.
In my father's life, it was partly tribalism and patronage in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career, and we know that this kind of corruption is a daily fact of life for far too many.
...
Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans.
You can read more excerpts here (from which I lifted the above) or read or listen to the whole thing here.
My feeling, if this manifests itself in a consistent policy platform, is that, just as only Nixon could go to China, as anyone to the left of him would have been torn apart by the right, perhaps only Obama can speak truth to Africa - as anyone less liberal, and without his personal narrative, would be torn apart by the liberals.
