what does Obama have for Africa?

Obama visits Africa WHAT DOES OBAMA HAVE FOR AFRICA WHEN HE VISITS? Obama was elected in 2008 as the first black president of the United States,the then Illinois senator's;currently occupied by Kwame Raoul, election to the big office raised a lot of excitements across the world most especially in Africa since he has the African background and heritage. In his first major tour of the continent the US president,Barack Obama is set to trip to Africa this week starting on wednesday where he willl visit Senegal, south Africa and Tanzania (july 1) A lot of speculations have been made over the major themes of his tour to the three African countries But having analysed a lot about it by consulting various sources it's easy to tell what the agenda of the visit is. 1. BEIJING INFLUENCE and ECONOMIC COMPETITION Since mainly China and also other countries like India and Russia had built, and explored great opportunities in the continent, by building good partnership and engagement with most African countries in terms of economic investment, of which US has not, we can say one reason for the visit is laying foundation for the development and boost of economic partnerships with African countries. In Tanzania most especially Chinese leader Xi Jinping had paid a state visit already. "After Mr. Xi’s March visit, in which he spoke of Beijing’s “sincere friendship” with Africa and said its trade with China reached $200 billion in 2012, Washington stressed its “positive agenda” with the continent."(thehindu. Com) South Africa a research specialist Haroon Bhorat, a Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town said that “There hasn’t really been a presence of U.S. companies since 1994 taking advantage of the new opportunities in South Africa. And then mainly the new ones are taken up by China, by India and, to some extent, even by Russia. So you see new emerging markets entering into other emerging markets like South Africa and taking advantage of economic opportunities in a way where U.S., with a foothold, arguably hasn’t done enough.” 2. PROMOTE DEMOCRACY Being a foundation, advocate and flag bearer for democracy and Obama trip to these African countries, it is quite obvious that another reason is to urge africans to engage with the U.S. in promoting democracy and democratic development in African countries. 3. THE GAY AGENDA In December 2011 Obama signed a memorandum instructing federal agencies to promote the human rights of gay people overseas, where Obama himself inserted himself into Africa's bitter debate publicly on homosexuals' legitimate rights especially in countries that criminalize homosexuality, and Senegal is one of such countries. There we can say the gay issue is most likely to surface. In one west African nation, Ivory Coast an event took place and AP said "The U.S. embassy here made history earlier this month by hosting a gay pride reception attended by about two dozen openly gay Ivorians. Despite the groundbreaking nature of the event, reporters were barred from attending, and the only mention of it was a short blurb on the embassy website posted the following week." (AP) the Associated Press also said that the event in Abidjan, Ivory coast "encapsulates the Obama administration's cautious promotion of gay rights in Africa, an issue that is likely to come up during his visit this week to three African nations — South Africa, Senegal and Tanzania — the last two of which punish homosexuality with jail time" One individual who attended the event at US embassy Abidjan is quoted to have asked if Obama will discuss about the issue pertaining gays and lesbians when he comes to senegal "It will be very important for him to talk about us with African leaders, and also in his speeches. It will give us strength to let us know that we are not alone." Anonymous