Obama's Visit - A View out of Ghana

Why has Obama chosen to come to Ghana as his first stop in Africa? Does it mean he chose not to come to the regional big brother Nigeria and his paternal home country of Kenya? Will he give a policy speech on Africa whilst in Ghana? How are Ghanaians preparing? Are they happy to host the first black American president?


These are questions that have already been debated thoroughly (see Ghanablogging.com's Abena being quoted here for example), hence I’d like to write on an issue much less discussed.

How can we living in Ghana at this time take part of the visit?

It has been made clear that president Obama will not address the general public directly, nor will there will be any parade in which we can see the Obamas, wave or take photos. Weather has been blamed for this decision, and yes, it has been raining extensively lately, but maybe it is more a security issue?

So here I give you the 3 places one will get the Obama fever up close:

1. Airforce One will land at Kotoka Airport at 8 pm tonight, at least one can see his plane there.

2. La Polyclinic is his second stop tomorrow morning after meeting the recent presidents of Ghana for breakfast (Rawlings, Kuffuor and Mills). I’m guessing they will convene at the Osu Castle and then drive (??) to La Polyclinic just 5 minutes away on the beach road.

3. The African-American Association in Ghana (AAAG) will watch Obama’s speech together at the Mensvic Grande Hotel in East Legon Saturday morning (starting 10 am). I think that will be a good place to get the Obama vibe for us who sadly were not invited to the International Conference Centre in Accra where he will give his address.

And on Saturday evening 7 pm at the Dubois Centre in Labone, Accra there will be a concert (Featuring among others wonderful singer Bibie Brew) saluting the popular visitor who at that point will have left beautiful, and rainy, Ghana.

Ill update you on how it all went on Sunday.

This is is a shared blogpost for ghanablogging.com.

4 comments:

One Fly said...

Obama needs a big helping of fu-fu prepared with some proper palm nut soup with fowl. That would get his mind right for his visit.

ImageNations said...

Thanks for the info but I definitely am not going out. I am have this military-phobia or in general I have a phobia for men inn uniform. So I would have to watch on T.V.

novisi said...

i think Obama himself is either confused about how to promote democracy or is just not sure what to do to Africa! else why say you chose Ghana because of democracy here! it does not make sense!

surely there's no logic there when we recall that one of the places he's been to so far is Saudi Arabia where there is no democracy! so that bases for his choice is made nonsense of by his own other choices!

don't get me wrong! i believe in the kind of universal views of Obama like green energy and democracy and dialogue etc! but truth be told. this is one of those illogical claims we have all around us!!!

cheers!

The Author said...

Your now-expected unique, simple and no-debate take. I like it.

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