Understanding Obama's visit to Ghana, and US-Africa ties

Stuart Loory, Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies, Missouri School of Journalism: President Barack Obama ended a weeklong foreign trip last weekend in Ghana, on the west coast of Africa. He received a rousing welcome; his message, however, was sobering. He told the Ghanaian Parliament that if the nations of Africa were going to raise themselves up, it would only be by doing away with oppression, corruption and otherwise undemocratic practices. Africa is a continent with more than a billion people, where there is starvation and hunger, civil wars, oppression and civil conflict. Now that Obama has returned to the U.S. to face problems of immediate concern in this country, the question is, what can and should be done in Africa to solve crisis situations there? What does Obama’s visit to Ghana mean there, as well as Africa in general?