THE OBAMAS IN GHANA

US President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and First Daughters Sasha and Malia all traveled to Ghana over the weekend. It was Obama’s first official trip to Africa and the reception of the world’s First Family was fabulous

Barack Obama dashed with pride onto the continent of his ancestors Saturday, challenging its people to shed corruption and conflict in favor of peace. Campaigning to all of Africa, he said “Yes you can.”

“I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world,” Obama told a riveted Ghanaian Parliament. “I have the blood of Africa within me.”

In the faces of those who lined the streets and in many of Obama’s own words, this trip was personal. Beyond his message, the story was his presence — the first black U.S. president coming to poor, proud, predominantly black sub-Sahara Africa for his first time in office.

The emotional touchstone of his visit: a tour of Cape Coast Castle, the cannon-lined fortress where slaves were kept in squalid dungeons, then shipped in chains to America through a “Door of No Return” that opens to the sea.

Obama absorbed the experience with his wife, Michelle, and their girls, Sasha and Malia.
All together, Obama was spending less than 24 hours in Ghana. But they packed in personal moments, in contrast to his summit-heavy travels across Russia and Italy over the last week.

At a maternal health clinic in Accra, he turned into a sentimental dad when he met a group of mothers holding newborns. “This is the highlight of the trip,” he said, beaming.

By afternoon, he was contemplating the human capacity for evil at the castle, which served as a headquarters for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Obama walked with his arm around Malia, 11. The first lady held the hand of Sasha, 8.

“Hopefully one of the things that was imparted to them during this trip was their sense of obligation to fight oppression and cruelty wherever it appears,” the president said.