Why Obama Freed His Inner 'Kenyan'
In turning attention to Africa in his final months in office, he follows his two predecessors. President George W. Bush surprised everyone, including critics like me, with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). By the time he left office, his program helped expand the number of HIV-infected who were receiving anti-AIDS medication from fewer than 50,000 to almost 2 million. That grew to more than 4 million worldwide by 2012.
President Bill Clinton, through the Clinton Foundation, also has raised millions to fight AIDS, assist farmers and help to make forests and cities more sustainable to withstand climate change in Africa.
Expanding on those gains and spurring more economic development were major themes of President Obama's trip to Kenya and Ethiopia. For this, he was warmly welcomed.
He also received enthusiastic applause -- especially from the women present, judging by the video coverage -- when he compared discrimination against women in the workplace to leaving half of your talented players on the bench.
But not surprisingly, his criticism of discrimination against gays and lesbians -- quite eloquently as "the path whereby freedoms begin to erode and bad things happen" -- was not as warmly received.
"For Kenyans today, the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue," said President Uhuru Kenyatta. "We want to focus on other issues that really are day-to-day issues for our people." For this Kenyatta was applauded by Kenyans in attendance, according to news reports.
Still, Obama had put the issue on the table and into Kenya's national conversation as more than a "non-issue." For Africa, where progress in gender rights is about where it was in 1950s America -- or worse -- that was a bold statement for Obama to make.
In all of sub-Saharan Africa, only South Africa -- which wrote equal rights for gays and lesbians into its constitution after the end of apartheid -- has legalized same-sex marriage.
"Leave Africa's affairs to the Africans," is a plea or demand that I have been hearing for more than 30 years of following African politics and social changes. That's understandable. Against the backdrop of history, Obama and other outsiders must step gently or be accused of cultural neocolonialism. But if our nation's first "Kenyan-American" president can't speak to Africa with a persuasive voice of tough love, who can?
========
(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)
(c) 2015 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
