Africa celebrates Obama victory with pride, hope

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NAIROBI, Kenya — For many across Africa and the world, Barack Obama’s election seals America’s reputation as a land of staggering opportunity.

“If it were possible for me to get to the United States on my bicycle, I would,” said Joseph Ochieng, a 36-year-old carpenter who lives in Kenya’s sprawling Kibera shantytown, a maze of tin-roofed shacks and dirt roads.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declared a public holiday Thursday in the country of Obama’s late father, allowing celebrations to continue through the night and into a second day. From Europe and Asia to the Middle East, many expressed amazement that the U.S. could overcome centuries of racial strife and elect an African-American president.

Scenes of jubilation broke out in the western Kenya village of Kogelo, where many of Obama’s Kenyan relatives still live. People sang, danced in the streets and wrapped themselves in U.S. flags. A group of exuberant residents picked up the president-elect’s half brother Malik and carried him through the village.

“Unbelievable!” Malik Obama shouted, leading the family in chanting, “Obama’s coming, make way!”

“He’s in!” said Rachel Ndimu, 23, a Kenyan business student who joined hundreds of others for an election party that began at 5 a.m. Wednesday at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger.

Obama was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood raised by his white mother. He barely knew his father. But for the world’s poorest continent, the ascent of a man of African heritage to America’s highest office was a source of immeasurable pride and hope.

Tributes rolled in from two of Africa’s groundbreaking leaders. Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, said Obama gave the world the courage to dream.

“Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place,” Mandela said in a letter of congratulations.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf — the first woman elected to head an African country — said she did not expect to see a black American president in her lifetime.

“All Africans now know that if you persevere, all things are possible,” she said.

In Britain, The Sun newspaper borrowed from Neil Armstrong’s 1969 moon landing in describing Obama’s election as “one giant leap for mankind.”

Yet celebrations were often tempered by sobering concerns that Obama faces momentous global challenges — wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the elusive hunt for peace in the Middle East and a financial crisis.

Europe, where Obama is overwhelmingly popular, is one region that looked eagerly to an Obama administration for a revival in warm relations after the Bush government’s chilly rift with the continent over the Iraq war.

“At a time when we have to confront immense challenges together, your election raises great hopes in France, in Europe and in the rest of the world,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a letter to Obama.

Obama’s victory also was greeted with cheers in Mexico, where former Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda wrote in the Reforma newspaper that the presidency represents a chance for Mexico to remake its relationship with the United States.

“Obama’s win … opens to Mexico an extraordinary opportunity to reposition itself in the world because it will be infinitely easier to be a neighbor, ally and friend of the United States with Obama,” he wrote.

Americans living abroad, too, basked in the glow of a victory hoped for by most of the world.

“I’m proud of being an American today,” said Jody Suden, a mother of two in London. “It’s such a shift from the way things have been.”

This report includes information from Cox News Service.

Africans elated by first black U.S. president

(CNN) — Celebrations erupted in Barack Obama’s ancestral home in Kenya and across Africa as the U.S. Democratic candidate made history by being elected America’s first African-American president. Residents of Kogelo, Kenya, celebrate news of Barack Obama’s victory early Wednesday morning.

In the western Kenyan village of Kogelo, where Obama’s father grew up, people partied in the streets. But the biggest party of all was at the house of Obama’s grandmother, 86-year-old Sarah Obama, who could not resist doing a victory dance of her own.

Speaking in the local language, Sarah Obama said she planned to one day visit her now-world-famous grandson, whom she still calls “Barry.” To a roar of laughter, she said she’s afraid she may die of happiness when she sees him next.

In true African style, Kogelo villagers slaughtered a boar to give thanks for Obama’s presidential win.

“We are going to have a feast and eat every single meal we have,” Sarah Obama said with laughter.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said the entire country was proud of Obama’s presidential victory. He said the government declared Thursday a public holiday to celebrate the win, which he said offered hope for Kenya and the world.

“It gives them confidence in themselves that everything is achievable,” Odinga told CNN.

“If somebody sets his mind to it, has the confidence and commitment, this is what Obama’s victory really means — not just to young Kenyans but to the youth all over the world — (believing) in the ability of one to achieve what one sets out to do.”

With a population of less than 1,000, Kogelo is a normally sleepy place that has found itself transformed by Obama’s political success. Campaign posters shout Obama’s name and vendors sell CDs of his speeches and T-shirts bearing his picture.

Obama has visited the village before. His first visit was in 1987, just after his father died. When he visited his grandmother in 2006, Obama already drew huge crowds.

Besides his grandmother, Kogelo is also home to Obama’s uncle, Said Obama; aunt, Hawa Auma; and half-brother, Malik Obama, who says he speaks regularly to his sibling.

Thousands of people have been posting messages on CNN blogs congratulating Obama and America after the Democrat’s victory over Republican rival John McCain.

Yvonne Okwara, from Kenya, wrote: “Obama’s win is so personal to so many of us, it continues to amaze me. One thing America has taught us today is that true democracy never dies.”

Basimane Bogopa, from Botswana, added: “Americans have shown once again, why they are world leaders. Obama’s victory has shown me that the American dream is real, you just have to dream. My heart is filled with joy.”

Many Africans believe an Obama presidency will help the impoverished continent. His victory is likely to seal America’s reputation in the minds of many Africans as a land of opportunity.

And for South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, the election of America’s first is a symbol of hope.

“Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place,” Mandela said in a letter of congratulations to Obama.

Rice arrives in Libya on historic visit

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer 43 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that her historic visit to former pariah state Libya proves that the U.S. never writes off another nation forever.

Rice is the highest-ranking American official to visit the North African country in more than a half-century. She will meet over dinner with mercurial leader Moammar Gadhafi, whom President Reagan once called a “mad dog” and other U.S. leaders have called a terrorist.

“There is a long way to go but I do believe that this demonstrates that the United States doesn’t have permanent enemies,” Rice said as she flew to the capital. She said she had not expected she would ever go to Libya.

Rice was welcomed with a modest ceremony at the airport and was meeting with Libya’s foreign minister before the highlight of the brief visit — dinner with Gadhafi. He invited her for the evening meal that breaks the day’s fast observed during the holy month of Ramadan, and although details were sketchy ahead of time, U.S. officials said they expected Rice would dine in a traditional, desert-style tent.

“I look forward to hearing the leader’s world view,” Rice told reporters.

Gadhafi is expected to be surrounded by an all-female bodyguard corps.

Rice is the first secretary of state to visit Libya since John Foster Dulles in 1953 and the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit since then-Vice President Richard Nixon in 1957.

Gadhafi has sought the visit to culminate five years of halting but steadily improving ties that began when Libya abandoned weapons of mass destruction and renounced terrorism in 2003.

Libya has since agreed to pay compensation to the families of victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, and those of a 1986 attack on a disco in Berlin, which prompted President Reagan to order retaliatory airstrikes on Libyan targets. The money is not yet all there, but U.S. officials say they are confident it will be paid soon.

“It demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes in direction the United States is prepared to respond,” Rice said. “It’s a beginning, it’s an opening. It’s not, I think, the end of the story.”

Rice was spending only a few hours in Tripoli, an ancient city fronting the Mediterranean sea and backing to the north African desert. There were few signs in the capital that Libyans or their government saw the day as particularly significant. Unlike in some capitals, there were no banners along her motorcade route or crowds lined up to gawk.

Rice was visiting the offices that serve as the U.S. embassy in Libya. Plans to send a full-fledged ambassador are hung up in Congress over concern that Libya has not fulfilled all its promises to compensate terror victims.

“No one can ever salve the wounds of the families,” victimized by terror attacks, Rice said. “That is why we have looked so hard for justice to be brought and a means of compensation.”

U.S. officials had hoped that Libya would have deposited hundreds of millions of dollars into the compensation fund by the time Rice arrived. But the State Department said Thursday that the account remained empty.

Some of the families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have raised vehement objections to Rice meeting with Gadhafi, whom they consider to be unrepentant for the deaths of the 280 people, including 180 Americans.

The Bush administration has expressed sympathy with the families but said it is time to move ahead with Libya, which is the first, and thus far only, country designated by the State Department to be a “state sponsor of terrorism” to be removed from that list through its own actions.

Rice’s visit comes amid a surge in interest from U.S. companies, particularly in the energy sector, to do business in Libya, where European companies have had much greater access in recent years. Libya’s proven oil reserves are the ninth largest in the world, close to 39 billion barrels, and vast areas remain unexplored for new deposits.

“Reliable sources of energy supply, multiple sources of energy, diversification of energy supply is an important element of economic development for the entire international economy,” Rice said, but not the focus of the U.S. opening to Libya. “The relationship has much broader potential than just energy.”

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Friday in Washington that the Bush administration hopes to be able to announce a new ambassador there soon.

“We have had a long and bad history with Libya,” she said. “That began to turn around when they turned away from nuclear weapons and terrorism. That country has radically changed its behavior and Secretary Rice’s trip signifies a new chapter in U.S.-Libya bilateral relations.”

Relations between the countries are still strained on a number of fronts, ranging from human rights issues to the final resolution of legal claims from the terror bombings.

A leading Libyan reformer, Fathi al-Jhami, whose case has been championed by the Bush administration and by Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, remained in detention, where he has been near continuously since 2002. Rights groups say hundreds of other political prisoners are still being held.

Rice said she would raise the dissident’s case with Libyan officials and wanted to see his release.

Libya, now an elected member of the U.N. Security Council, has voted with the U.S. on issues related to Iran’s nuclear program and has helped with the Darfur crisis. But its support on other key issues, notably the Middle East peace process, is far from clear.

Among the biggest question marks is the often unpredictable behavior of the sunglasses-clad Gadhafi, who has cultivated images as both an Arab potentate and African monarch since taking power in a 1969 coup.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera television last year, Gadhafi spoke of Rice in most unusual terms, calling her “Leezza” and suggesting that she actually runs the Arab world with which he has had severe differences in the past.

“I support my darling black African woman,” he said. “I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders … Leezza, Leezza, Leezza. … I love her very much. I admire her, and I’m proud of her, because she’s a black woman of African origin.”

(This version CORRECTS the year of the Pan Am 103 bombing to 1988.)

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Obama says he opposes slavery reparations, apology

By CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 49 minutes ago

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, putting him at odds with some black groups and leaders.

The man with a serious chance to become the nation’s first black president argues that government should instead combat the legacy of slavery by improving schools, health care and the economy for all.

“I have said in the past — and I’ll repeat again — that the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed,” the Illinois Democrat said recently.

Some two dozen members of Congress are co-sponsors of legislation to create a commission that would study reparations — that is, payments and programs to make up for the damage done by slavery.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supports the legislation, too. Cities around the country, including Obama’s home of Chicago, have endorsed the idea, and so has a major union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Obama has worked to be seen as someone who will bring people together, not divide them into various interest groups with checklists of demands. Supporting reparations could undermine that image and make him appear to be pandering to black voters.

“Let’s not be naive. Sen. Obama is running for president of the United States, and so he is in a constant battle to save his political life,” said Kibibi Tyehimba, co-chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. “In light of the demographics of this country, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect him to do anything other than what he’s done.”

But this is not a position Obama adopted just for the presidential campaign. He voiced the same concerns about reparations during his successful run for the Senate in 2004.

There’s enough flexibility in the term “reparations” that Obama can oppose them and still have plenty of common ground with supporters.

The NAACP says reparations could take the form of government programs to help struggling people of all races. Efforts to improve schools in the inner city could also aid students in the mountains of West Virginia, said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau.

“The solution could be broad and sweeping,” Shelton said.

The National Urban League — a group Obama is to address Saturday — avoids the word “reparations” as too vague and highly charged. But the group advocates government action to close the gaps between white America and black America.

Urban League President Marc Morial said he expects his members to press Obama on how he intends to close those gaps and what action he would take in the first 100 days of his presidency.

“What steps should we take as a nation to alleviate the effects of racial exclusion and racial discrimination?” Morial asked.

The House voted this week to apologize for slavery. The resolution, which was approved on a voice vote, does not mention reparations, but past opponents have argued that an apology would increase pressure for concrete action.

Obama says an apology would be appropriate but not particularly helpful in improving the lives of black Americans. Reparations could also be a distraction, he said.

In a 2004 questionnaire, he told the NAACP, “I fear that reparations would be an excuse for some to say, ‘We’ve paid our debt,’ and to avoid the much harder work.”

Taking questions Sunday at a conference of minority journalists, Obama said he would be willing to talk to American Indian leaders about an apology for the nation’s treatment of their people.

Pressed for his position on apologizing to blacks or offering reparations, Obama said he was more interested in taking action to help people struggling to get by. Because many of them are minorities, he said, that would help the same people who would stand to benefit from reparations.

“If we have a program, for example, of universal health care, that will disproportionately affect people of color, because they’re disproportionately uninsured,” Obama said. “If we’ve got an agenda that says every child in America should get — should be able to go to college, regardless of income, that will disproportionately affect people of color, because it’s oftentimes our children who can’t afford to go to college.”

One reparations advocate, Vernellia Randall, a law professor at the University of Dayton, bluntly responded: “I think he’s dead wrong.”

She said aid to the poor in general won’t close the gaps — poor blacks would still trail poor whites, and middle-class blacks would still lag behind middle-class whites. Instead, assistance must be aimed directly at the people facing the after-effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws, she said.

“People say he can’t run and get elected if he says those kinds of things,” Randall said. “I’m like, well does that mean we’re really not ready for a black president?”

Report: Black U.S. AIDS rates rival some African nations

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — The AIDS epidemic among African-Americans in some parts of the United States is as severe as in parts of Africa, according to a report out Tuesday.

“AIDS in America today is a black disease,” says Phill Wilson, founder of the Black AIDS institute.

“Left Behind – Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS” is intended to raise awareness and remind the public that the “AIDS epidemic is not over in America, especially not in Black America,” says the report, published by the Black AIDS Institute, an HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on African-Americans.

“AIDS in America today is a black disease,” says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the institute and himself HIV-positive for 20 years. “2006 CDC data tell us that about half of the just over 1 million Americans living with HIV or AIDS are black.”

Although black people represent only about one in eight Americans, one in every two people living with HIV in the United States is black, the report notes.

The report uses just-released data from UNAIDS and existing CDC and Census data to highlight grim statistics:

• AIDS remains the leading cause of death among black women between ages 25 and 34. It’s the second-leading cause of death in black men 35-44.

• In Washington, more than 80 percent of HIV cases are among black people, that’s one in 20 residents.

“Five percent of the entire population (in DC) is infected… that’s comparable to countries like Uganda or South Africa,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN for the recent “Black in America” documentary.

According to this report, if black Americans made up their own country, it would rank above Ethiopia (420,000 to 1,300,000) and below Ivory Coast (750,000) in HIV population. Both Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast are among the 15 nations receiving funds from the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief. The United States has given about $15 billion to PEPFAR nations in the past five years.

The Black AIDS Institute says it’s not criticizing the federal government for helping poorer countries cope with the AIDS epidemic. Rather, it’s saying the “AIDS epidemic [in the U.S.] is not getting the kind attention that it merits.”

“We understand the needs of black folk in Johannesburg (South Africa),” Wilson says. “Why can’t we understand the needs of them in Jackson, Mississippi? We understand the needs in Nigeria or Botswana, why not understand the needs of Los Angeles or Oakland?”

Wilson says more needs to be done to prevent the spread of HIV in this country. The report states that the U.S. government “increased spending on HIV prevention, treatment and support programs for low-income countries dramatically, at the same time that domestic remained all but flat.”

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, domestic prevention efforts make up the smallest part of the HIV/AIDs budget, the 2009 budget request includes $892 million for domestic HIV prevention efforts, the same as in 2008.

In this report, Wilson and others urge the federal government and private foundations to significantly increase funding for HIV prevention and treatment programs. The report also calls on international agencies to hold the U.S. government accountable for failure to address HIV/AIDS epidemic in its own country (despite lauding it for its PEPFAR efforts). It also urges black communities in the United States to fight the stigma and overcome prejudice associated with being infected with HIV.

“Peggy” found out 10 years ago that she was HIV positive. The fact that she’s asked us to not use her real name is an example of the stigma that’s still attached to having the virus that causes AIDS, especially in the African-American community.

“I don’t really talk to many other people about it, ’cause I guess maybe, they don’t want to talk,” says the 27-year-old Lake Charles, Louisiana, woman. Others like her, she says, are still too ashamed to admit they have HIV.

Marvelyn Brown, 24, of Washington, is more open about her status. She learned she had HIV when she was only 19, after one time of unprotected sex while in a monogamous relationship.

Brown has told her story in a book, “The Naked Truth, ” and to CNN in last week’s special report, “Black in America.” She regularly addresses community groups, trying to help educate blacks about the risk of of HIV and AIDS.

The report was funded by the Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.