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Barack Obama and his family flew into Ghana last night to a rapturous welcome as the African nation rejoiced in the arrival of America’s first black President.
“Akwaaba [welcome home] Barack and Michelle Obama,” proclaimed banners strung across the street of the spruced-up capital of Accra. Traditional dancers and drummers performed songs for Mr Obama’s first visit to any country in sub-Saharan Africa as the US President.
Thousands of jubilant Ghanaians waving US and Ghanaian flags braved torrential rain to line the road from the airport into the centre of town in the hope of catching a glimpse of the First Family.
To most Ghanaians and other Africans the President’s tour is seen as a homecoming rather than an official trip by a head of state to a foreign country. That unique position was set to be acknowledged today in a manner that few other Western visitors have experienced. Mrs Obama will be honoured by tribal chiefs as a “Queen” in a ceremony.
“Ghana is the birthplace of Africa — he is the first black President, we are part of him,” said Jonathan Prah, 29. Mr Prah, a caterer, was waiting in a crowd outside Cape Castle, a former Dutch slaving port, which the Obamas will visit this afternoon.
Ghana, which was the first African country to gain independence in 1957, was at the centre of one of Africa’s darkest chapters — slavery. President Obama may owe more to scholarships than slave ships — his father left Kenya with a bursary to study at Harvard — but his wife has a traditional African-American heritage.
Jim Robinson, Mrs Obama’s great-great-grandfather, was born into slavery in about 1850 and until the Civil War lived as a slave on a rice plantation in Friendfield, South Carolina.
A council or durbar of local chiefs has been summoned to a ceremony to mark the occasion at which the First Lady will be granted the title of Queen of the Cape Coast. She will be presented with a hand-made wooden stool as a symbol of family stability and rolls of colourful kente cloth.
Honourable Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi VII, the current president of the council, said that the Obamas’ visit to Cape Castle slave fort will be an emotional moment. “It is a moving place, full of history which reminds us of our painful past and the turmoil that our ancestors went through,” Mr Ewusi said. He added that the challenges of today were poverty and underdevelopment, issues that the President’s visit is designed to bring to the forefront.
“I am keeping details of the ceremony hush-hush in tradition with our culture but as one of our queens she [Mrs Obama] will be very powerful,” he added.
Mr Obama may also receive a title but is unlikely to be named a chief. “We are in discussions still on that but there is a feeling that he is doing fine as it is,” said Mr Ewusi, 48.
Street vendors are doing a brisk trade in pictures, wristbands, flags and a song, Barack Obama — written by a Ghanaian reggae star called Black Rasta — is playing non-stop on radio shows.
Before visiting Cape Coast the President is due to have breakfast with John Atta Mills, the Ghanaian President, and give an address to the country’s parliament in which he will stress the need for good governance to help meet Africa’s many challenges.
