President Barack Obama shakes hands with Pope Benedict XVI, Friday, July 10, 2009, at the Vatican.
(Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP Photo)More Photos
Hours before his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president, President Obama delivered some tough love to African leaders, urging them to get their houses in order so they can better provide for their citizens.
In a meeting this morning with the leaders of Egypt, Algeria, Senegal, Nigeria, Libya and Ethiopia, Obama spoke about his personal connections to both Africa and poverty, and challenged the leaders to set prioritiesfor combating poverty and hunger. According to a top White House aide, "You could have heard a pin drop."
Obama recounted the exchange at a news conference at the conclusion of the G-8 summit.
"The point I was making was that my father traveled to the United States a mere 50 years ago, yet now I have family members who live in villages. They themselves are not going hungry, but they live in villages where hunger is real," Obama said. "And so this is something that I understand in very personal terms."
Obama noted that when his father, Barack Obama Sr., traveled to the United States from Kenya in 1959, the African nation had a higher per capita income and gross domestic product than South Korea.
"Today, obviously, South Korea is a highly developed and relatively wealthy country, and Kenya is still struggling with deep poverty. And the question I asked in the meeting was, 'Why is that?'" the president said.
Obama said that despite talk of the legacy of colonialism, he made the point to the African leaders that the government of South Korea was able to work the private sector and civil society to set up institutions for economic progress.
"There was no reason why many African countries could not do the same," he said.
Later today, Obama heads to Ghana, where he will hold up the West African nation as a model of good governance and successful democracy.
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