{"id":31870,"date":"2017-01-17T01:16:12","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T01:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/obama-leaves-symbolic-legacy-in-africa\/"},"modified":"2017-01-17T01:15:56","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T01:15:56","slug":"obama-leaves-symbolic-legacy-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/obama-leaves-symbolic-legacy-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama leaves symbolic legacy in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Obama is generally seen as having advanced US interests in Africa and deepened relationships, not least by continuing his predecessors’ flagship projects.}<\/p>\n

It was always going to be hard for outgoing US President Barack Obama to live up to expectations in Africa.<\/p>\n

Born to a Kenyan father who once herded goats, the first black US president was seen as Africa’s prodigal son who would understand the continent in a way white presidents never could.<\/p>\n

Nelson Mandela said Obama’s historic victory was proof everyone should “dare to dream” and Africans gave the new president a hero’s welcome. <\/p>\n

Six months after taking office in 2009, Obama travelled to Ghana to lay the foundations for future policies that emphasised responsibility and trade.<\/p>\n

“Africa’s future is up to Africans,” he said in a speech in the country’s capital of Accra.<\/p>\n

“Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions,” he added, referring to the countless leaders who cling to power and enrich themselves in countries where poverty is rampant.<\/p>\n

The speech electrified the crowd but the thrill wore off. The trip was his last visit to Africa in his first term.<\/p>\n

He took a different approach in his second term, launching his signature Africa initiative in 2013 after a visit to Robben Island, the apartheid-era prison outside Cape Town that held Mandela for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

His Power Africa programme to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa was designed to bring governments and the private sector together.<\/p>\n

“That’s a big part of his legacy, to change that perception that Africa is not the dark continent, it is rising and there is opportunity there,” US-Africa specialist Scott Firsing told AFP.<\/p>\n

“Obama changed aid to trade,” added Firsing, from the University of North Carolina.<\/p>\n

{{Growing terror threat}}<\/p>\n

Obama, who has said that one of his greatest achievements in office was “taking out” Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, also took the fight against rising Islamist extremism to Africa.<\/p>\n

He ordered an expanded military presence against Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Mali, Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Shabaab in Somalia. <\/p>\n

Drone bases were set up in Niger, which borders both Mali and Nigeria, and northern Cameroon, while there were targeted strikes in Somalia.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Obama is generally seen as having advanced US interests in Africa and deepened relationships, not least by continuing his predecessors’ flagship projects.} It was always going to be hard for outgoing US President Barack Obama to live up to expectations in Africa. Born to a Kenyan father who once herded goats, the first black US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[2481],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-daily-monitor"],"bylines":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31870"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31870"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}