Obama, Clean Your Own House First!

Young Africans Tell US President...

(pix:deverpost)

President Obama came to Africa to deliver a "blunt message" to its politicians. But young people in Kenya and Ethiopia had plenty to say to Mr Obama about the state of America.

"Tough love" has been a theme of President Obama's visit to East Africa.

The moments where he really came alive on this trip were not just when he talked of his love for Africa, but also when he spoke passionately about human rights.Standing beside the Kenyan president he likened the pursuit of gay rights in Africa to the civil rights struggle in the US. 

To an enthralled crowd in a stadium in Nairobi he talked of the importance of women in society.He talked of the need to eradicate corruption and treat fairly minority communities, including Muslims in Kenya."Progress requires that you see the differences and diversity of this country as a strength, just as we in America try to see the diversity of our country as a strength," he said.

"I always say that what makes America exceptional is not the fact that we're perfect, it's the fact that we struggle to improve. We're self-critical. We work to live up to our highest values and ideals."

Kenyans and Ethiopians were overwhelmingly enthusiastic, even fanatical, about their returning East African son, but there were many who felt America, even Barack Obama, was not in a position to lecture others on some of these points.

"Most Americans think about what needs to change in other countries but they need to solve their own problems," Shiferaw Tilahun, tells me in a coffee shop in Addis Ababa.

"They are interested in other people's problems but they don't care about black people in their own country," Shiferaw says. "Most of our black brothers and sisters are suffering in the US."

It was clear in both countries that the issue of race, more than any other, had damaged people's perceptions of the US."When I speak to my friends and family here in Kenya, their feeling about America is 'clean your own house first'," says Teresa Mbagaya.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE