Obama in Ghana

U.S. President Barack Obama met Ghana's democratically elected president Saturday on a visit to Africa that will emphasize his message on the importance of good governance and accountability.It is Obama's first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since he took office as the first African American president of the United States.Obama and Mills shook hands as they met outside the presidential palace and stood side by side while a military band played the U.S. and Ghanaian national anthems. The leaders then inspected a military honor guard.Ghana was chosen because it symbolizesan Africa different to the old images of war, misery and corruption. President John Atta Mills was elected in a peaceful, transparent vote last December that set an example for the continent.Economic reforms in the cocoa and gold producing country, set to begin pumping oil next year, also helped bring unprecedented investment and growth before the impact of the global financial crisis.Along the streets of Accra, walls and utility poles were plastered with posters of side-by-side portraits of Obama and Mills and the word "change" -- the mantra of Obama's presidential election campaign.Thousands of people wearing Obama t-shirts thronged the streets, cheering as the president's motorcade swept past. Obama is a hero on the continent because of his roots as the son of a Kenyan immigrant."This is both a special and an important visit for him personally as president but also for our country to articulate a vision for Africa," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs."He knows there's a lot of enthusiasm on the continent for his visit but also for our special partnership." Africa has not been a top priority for an administration grappling with the global financial crisis.Few expect a shift in policy and the main message will be on the importance of good governance and the wise use of aid, such as the G8 commitment made in Italy to spend $20 billion on improving food security in poor countries. Africa was one of the few parts of the world where U.S. President George W. Bush won friends, for overseeing a significant increase in aid.But U.S. policy in Africa faces a growing challenge from China's push into the continent in search of resources and markets. Some governments welcome the fact that Chinese aid and investment comes without the conditions set by the West. Obama was due to address parliament Saturday before visiting Cape Coast Castle, a fort used in the transatlantic slave trade. He and his family will spend less than 24 hours in Ghana before returning to the United States.

And although he acknowledged the conflicts that dominate news reports from the continent, by far his emphasis was on the subject of improving African democracies and rooting out official corruption.

Rather than visiting his father's home of Kenya, which saw intense postelection violence, Obama decided to visit Ghana -- saying he wanted to draw attention to the country's history of free elections and peaceful transfer of power between opposition parties.

On a stage draped with kente cloth, Obama spoke briefly of violence in Congo, Somalia and Darfur, Sudan, and promised the U.S. will support those who "stand up to inhumanity in our midst."

"It is never justifiable to target innocents in the name of ideology," he said. "It is the death sentence of a society to force children to kill in wars. It is the ultimate mark of criminality and cowardice to condemn women to relentless and systematic rape. We must bear witness to the value of every child in Darfur and the dignity of every woman in Congo."

But the president did not dwell on what he called the "crude caricature of a continent at war." He spoke of how his grandfather was a cook for the British in Kenya and, though a respected elder in his village, was called "boy" by his employers for much of his life.

But colonialism isn't responsible for all of Africa's problems, Obama said.

"In my father's life, it was partly tribalism and patronage in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career," he said, "and we know that this kind of corruption is a daily fact of life for far too many."

Later, Obama and his family visited the Cape Coast Castle, a major port where Africans were once shipped off into slavery.

The castle stands on the western coast of Africa, a sprawling compound with dark dungeons where captives lived in sweltering heat with only tiny vents to let in fresh air.

"It is reminiscent of the trip I took to Buchenwald (concentration camp)," Obama said, "because it reminds us of the capacity of human beings to commit great evil." Still, he called it the first step on the journey that is the African-American experience.

"As painful as it is," he said, "it helps to teach all of us that we have to do what we can to fight against the kinds of evils that sadly still exist in our world, not just on this continent but in every corner of the globe."