President Obama's Africa speech

On July 11, 2009, was a historic day for the United States and the African continent as the first African-American President, Barack Hussein Obama, traveled to Accra, Ghana and addressed the Ghanaian Parliament.  President Obama's mere presence as the son of a Kenyan goat herder cum leader of the free world demonstrated a powerful symbolic shift in global politics. 
In his first presidential address to the African continent, President Obama pledged the United States' support for African democratic leadership and its socio-economic development.  He declared that "history was on the move" and that "Africa's future is up to Africans."  The president also extended the America's hand as a partner for Africa stating that "... in the 21st century, we are called to act by our conscience and our common interest" to do so.
President Obama's speech to Africa, although imbued with hope, still reflected the same arrogance, blame shifting, and paternalism Western leaders have shown since the continent's independent nations began to emerge.

President Obama remarks on the Cape Coast Castle EPA/SHAWN THEW

Colonial powers still claim a stronghold on Africans' future because they never left.  After the death of traditional colonialism, neo-colonialism succeeded to rule over the continent.  European monarchs and heads of state were quickly replaced by CEOs, multi-national corporations, and private investors.  Further undermining African autonomy, the International Monetar Fund (IMF) and World Bank stepped in to drown Africa's hopes of internal development under billions of dollars in high-interest loans and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), which cut vital social programs focusing on education and maternal and child health in favor of promoting privatization and trade with its former colonizers.
Africans cannot control their future because it was purchased by Western owned multinational corporations and global financial institutions decades ago. 
Furthermore allegations of abuses committed towards Africans by neo-colonial corporations are plenty.  On June 8, 2009 Shell gas company (Royal Dutch Shell) paid $15.5 million to the Ogoni people of Nigeria after they were found complicit in the violation of their human rights including the 1995 execution of activist and author Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others.  While in South Africa, European owned mining companies specializing in diamond and gold mining continue to compromise their employees safety and health; many not providing adequate health care or safe working environments for its staff.  And in the Congo, France's quest to acquire natural resources and minerals such as coltan, used to power cell phones, iPods, and laptops, has fueled the nation's decades long civil war.

Ghanaians line the streets to support President Obama EPA/SHAWN THEW

Just as colonizers drew the colonial map a generation ago, neo-colonialist are carving up the continent's resources in a way that deepens the ethnic conflicts and in-fighting national boundaries created 50 years prior.
President Obama said in his speech to Africa, "Freedom is your inheritance. Now, it is your responsibility to build upon freedom’s foundation."  But the West has not freed Africa.  The shackles of a century ago are still visible.  They are every dollar of international debt and every foreign-owned corporation controlling its resources.  If freedom is Africa's inheritance, then the old Western model of neo-colonialism and paternalism must die so that Africans may claim it.