President Obama makes history on two occasions the
same week
Barack Obama’s trip to Ghana and his speech at the NAACP marked yet another set of historic firsts for his presidency. It was significant
that he made his sojourn to the motherland and then returned during the same week to be the first African American President to address the
NAACP on its 100th Anniversary — a major milestone for this organization and the battle for Civil Rights.
Some have criticized him for visiting Ghana instead of Kenya given that Kenya was, after all, the birthplace of his biological father. The
President said he decided that it was more important to visit Ghana because it was one of the best models for Democracy in Africa with
stability and economic growth. Given the historic connections between Africa and the U.S., it was obvious that he also wanted to visit Ghana
because it was one of the major centers for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. In explaining why he chose not to visit Kenya, he made it clear that
he had issues and concerns about tribal politics, political instability, corruption and nepotism that continue to stifle progress in that nation.
Some have described his trip to Ghana as his first visit to Africa. That is not correct. President Obama’s first visit to the African continent as
president occurred when he visited Egypt shortly after his return from the Economic Summit in France. Many find it hard to believe that Egypt
— home of the pharaohs and some of the greatest civilizations to rule the world — is a part of the African continent.
The two historic visits are significant for other reasons. It was important for Obama, as the first African American President of the United
States, to visit Ghana because it was the first sub-Saharan Black African country to liberate itself from European colonialism. This was
accomplished when Ghana won its independence from the British in 1957 led by Ghana’s “George Washington,” the late President Kwame
Nkrumah. Nkrumah, who has been called “The Father of Pan-Africanism,” obtained widespread popularity and reverence throughout Africa and
the Pan-African world. He urged all African peoples, in the continent and elsewhere, to shed themselves from the physical and mental
shackles of European colonialism. He was deposed in a coup d’état that some speculate may have been influenced by the CIA.
One of the people that Nkrumah inspired was W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois ties Ghana and the NAACP together through his own experience. He
was one of the founders of the NAACP at its Niagara Movement and served as the researcher/editor of its principal newspaper, “The Crisis,”
for many decades. After a long and inspiring career as an activist, intellectual and scholar in the U.S., DuBois accepted an invitation to move
to Ghana to undertake the enormous task of creating and writing The Encyclopedia Africana. He died and was buried in Ghana after completing
the first volume.
The trip to Ghana by President Obama inspired Africans and people of African decent around the world. The media coverage was
extensive, presenting Africans from a positive perspective for a change. President Obama’s address to the NAACP was equally inspiring and
notable. As one who grew up just a few miles away from W.E.B. DuBois’ home in Great Barrington, MA, and as one of the first graduates of the
W.E.B. DuBois Department of African and Afro-American Studies, I was particularly disappointed that our President failed to give recognition
and homage to one of the giants whose tireless work and contributions laid the critical groundwork for much of the success that he and the
rest of us enjoy today.
that he made his sojourn to the motherland and then returned during the same week to be the first African American President to address the
NAACP on its 100th Anniversary — a major milestone for this organization and the battle for Civil Rights.
Some have criticized him for visiting Ghana instead of Kenya given that Kenya was, after all, the birthplace of his biological father. The
President said he decided that it was more important to visit Ghana because it was one of the best models for Democracy in Africa with
stability and economic growth. Given the historic connections between Africa and the U.S., it was obvious that he also wanted to visit Ghana
because it was one of the major centers for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. In explaining why he chose not to visit Kenya, he made it clear that
he had issues and concerns about tribal politics, political instability, corruption and nepotism that continue to stifle progress in that nation.
Some have described his trip to Ghana as his first visit to Africa. That is not correct. President Obama’s first visit to the African continent as
president occurred when he visited Egypt shortly after his return from the Economic Summit in France. Many find it hard to believe that Egypt
— home of the pharaohs and some of the greatest civilizations to rule the world — is a part of the African continent.
The two historic visits are significant for other reasons. It was important for Obama, as the first African American President of the United
States, to visit Ghana because it was the first sub-Saharan Black African country to liberate itself from European colonialism. This was
accomplished when Ghana won its independence from the British in 1957 led by Ghana’s “George Washington,” the late President Kwame
Nkrumah. Nkrumah, who has been called “The Father of Pan-Africanism,” obtained widespread popularity and reverence throughout Africa and
the Pan-African world. He urged all African peoples, in the continent and elsewhere, to shed themselves from the physical and mental
shackles of European colonialism. He was deposed in a coup d’état that some speculate may have been influenced by the CIA.
One of the people that Nkrumah inspired was W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois ties Ghana and the NAACP together through his own experience. He
was one of the founders of the NAACP at its Niagara Movement and served as the researcher/editor of its principal newspaper, “The Crisis,”
for many decades. After a long and inspiring career as an activist, intellectual and scholar in the U.S., DuBois accepted an invitation to move
to Ghana to undertake the enormous task of creating and writing The Encyclopedia Africana. He died and was buried in Ghana after completing
the first volume.
The trip to Ghana by President Obama inspired Africans and people of African decent around the world. The media coverage was
extensive, presenting Africans from a positive perspective for a change. President Obama’s address to the NAACP was equally inspiring and
notable. As one who grew up just a few miles away from W.E.B. DuBois’ home in Great Barrington, MA, and as one of the first graduates of the
W.E.B. DuBois Department of African and Afro-American Studies, I was particularly disappointed that our President failed to give recognition
and homage to one of the giants whose tireless work and contributions laid the critical groundwork for much of the success that he and the
rest of us enjoy today.
