Given that the second term of President Barack Obama hasn’t gone as planned, it’s no shock that the first major trip to Africa by America’s first African-American president didn’t go as well as it might have. It seemed less special than expected and anti-climatic. Timing is everything.
Both of his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, have track records and institutes that have done notable work in sub-Sahara Africa–efforts that trump Obama Administration accomplishments to date. In fact, former President Bush was literally there in Tanzania at the same time as Obama and could bask in the fact that the Dar es Salaam summit on empowering African women was organized by the George W. Bush Institute.
And for obvious reasons, there was no opportunity in South Africa for Obama to physically and symbolically meet with 94-year-old Nelson Mandela to literally embrace the man, the moment and the legacy.
And there was also that awkward moment in Dakar, Senegal with Senegalese President Macky Sall. At a press conference, President Obama responded to stateside news of the U.S. Supreme Court expanding federal benefits for married gay couples. He called it a “proud day for America.” He expanded on his comment by making it clear that this just didn’t apply to the U.S. That “everybody has to be treated equally.” And that obviously included Africa, where a number of countries still outlaw homosexuality, and a few even punish violations with death.
President Sall, while asserting that his country was “very tolerant,” then reminded Obama that Senegal is “still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality.”
America’s first African-American president returns to the continent of his ancestors–only to be rebuked on a human right by Macky Sall? Senegalling.
* You know the anti-government demonstrations in Brazil over price hikes and corruption are really serious when they also include angry outbursts over the huge public spending for next year’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. When defiant demonstrators won’t be placated by soccer icons Pelé and Ronaldo–and they, indeed, tried–it can only get worse.