After a long trip to the United States, President Barack Obama returned to Africa. He returned crowned at the head of the American empire. He visited Cairo first, for its religious symbolism, and addressed Muslims as someone aware of their history and traditions. He extended the hand of friendship, after the rifle had been the instrument of communication with Muslims during the tenure of his predecessor, and in earlier decades. He removed some of the trepidation; the history of colonialism does not much encourage the peoples of the world to grant him their complete trust. On the second occasion, the crowned emperor returned to Ghana. He was a guest in the presidential palace, which had been a headquarters of the slave trade. There, deals were struck and money paid; merchants would prepare what they needed to complete their missions throughout the continent. There, the white “gods” divided power, land and wealth. After the presidential palace, Obama visited the castles of Cape Coast, on the Atlantic. In these castles, slaves were held before their shipment, like sheep, to the US, where they were awaited by merchants who would divide them up, in the ugliest type of exploitation known by man. Ironically, those merchants enacted laws for slavery, to settle matters between them in the event of a disagreement. It was also to prevent the slaves from staging a revolution, getting acquainted with development, education, or work outside the scope defined by the owner. Many Americans who visited the Cape Coast castles cried over the past of their ancestors and their reality, even though slavery was abolished, along with its laws, but racism in America continues to be the dominant culture, except when blacks excel in sports. We do not know if Obama cried, and we do not know his wife's reaction. But what is certain is that they recalled some of what they had read, and they certainly felt disappointed by Washington's past. In Ghana, leaving aside history, Obama was on a mission dictated to him by his position in the White House, as the representative of companies, lobbies, military institutions, and policies dictated by legislators and those with interests; they impose their values and behavior and a black or white president is unable to violate them, even if his intentions are good. In the name of this America, Obama linked assistance for Africa and its countries' pro-democracy policies. In the name of this America, he said: “It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these problems on others. 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.” He called on Africans to adopt policies of good governance, because “Africa doesn't need strong men, it needs strong institutions.” He offered Ghana as an example of this good governance. Power has passed from one political party to another, without violence. However, he did not say that it is a promising oil country and that he preceded other competitors to this vital good. Before Obama headed for Accra, he was warned by the Nobel Literature Prize winner, the Nigerian Wole Soyinka, about visiting his country, so that he would not support the corrupt ruling class there. In a bit of meanness, we can say that he did not visit it, not because of the pervasive corruption, and not out of deference to Soyinka's wish, but because its plentiful oil already has its consumers, among them Americans. Africans were very optimistic about Obama. They were optimistic about the color of his skin, but one black president will not change the face of America. One mockingbird does not a spring make.
