What can obama expect when he visits ghana during his african trip?
South Africa might physically lie 3,000 miles from Ghana, the site of President Obama’s visit this weekend, but—as a fellow sub-Saharan African country that, not too long ago, suddenly molted off its mantle of despotic misrule and metamorphosed into a doggedly chugging little democracy—it is Ghana’s emotional next-door neighbor. Their miracle status gives South Africans a lot of swagger, but a lot of frustration, too. It can be tough to see your country constantly offered as a good example when there’s still so much fixing left to do. So I expect Ghanaians to receive Obama as I’ve seen South Africans respond to him here: overwhelmingly, as a symbol of what there already is to be proud of, and simultaneously as the figure who might soon release them from their frustrations and make the rest of their dreams substantively real. (Already, a Hotel Obama has opened in an upscale residential Accra neighborhood.) Obama’s name is powerful fuel here. At the Confederations Cupsoccer final held in
South Africa might physically lie 3,000 miles from Ghana, the site of President Obama’s visit this weekend, but—as a fellow sub-Saharan African country that, not too long ago, suddenly molted off its mantle of despotic misrule and metamorphosed into a doggedly chugging little democracy—it is Ghana’s emotional next-door neighbor. Their miracle status gives South Africans a lot of swagger, but a lot of frustration, too. It can be tough to see your country constantly offered as a good example when there’s still so much fixing left to do. So I expect Ghanaians to receive Obama as I’ve seen South Africans respond to him here: overwhelmingly, as a symbol of what there already is to be proud of, and simultaneously as the figure who might soon release them from their frustrations and make the rest of their dreams substantively real. (Already, a Hotel Obama has opened in an upscale residential Accra neighborhood.) Obama’s name is powerful fuel here. At the Confederations Cupsoccer final held in
