Hope for Africa Before Obama Presidency

These days, all roads lead to Wash­ing­ton, where sen­a­tor Bar­rack Oba­ma will be inau­gu­rat­ed on Jan­u­ary 20 as the 44^th pres­i­dent of the U.S.

The expec­ta­tions of what Oba­ma will do for Africa are high. Whether Africa will gain from an Oba­ma pres­i­den­cy or not is the sub­ject of much chat­ter on many African blogs, email groups, and tele­vi­sion shows.

What is every­one talk­ing about? Who has done more or could do more for Africa?

Out­go­ing President–George W. Bush has tout­ed PEPFAR (The Pres­i­den­t’s Emer­gency Plan for AIDS Relief) as a mon­u­men­tal achieve­ment for him, with mil­lions of lives that have been saved through AIDS medicine.

For­mer Pres­i­dent, William Jef­fer­son Clin­ton made two promi­nent trips to Africa dur­ing his pres­i­den­cy as did Pres­i­dent Bush.

How many trips will Oba­ma make to Africa? Does this even matter?