Barack Obama Welcomed to Ghana

Barack Obama arrived on the continent of his Kenyan father Friday night. Saturday morning, the red, white and blue of the star spangled banner lined the streets with the red, gold and green of Ghana and independent Africa.

Photo: Barack Obama Welcomed to Ghana

Barack Obama Welcomed to Ghana

Hours before the U.S. president's "major address" to the parliament of Ghana, the people have flooded the streets, clapping even for the reporters on the Obama entourage - not the press's usual greeting. Police are arrayed on the U.S. president's route, but the crowds appear calm. The jumpy Secret Service still remembers the mob scene that nearly crushed a woman when President Bill Clinton was here, Wall Street Journal reports.

Then Obama Ghana began talks Saturday with his counterpart, John Atta Mills.

The two shook hands as they met outside the presidential palace, and stU.S. President Barack Obama, fresh from this week's meeting in Italy with the G8 group of industrialized nations, said Saturday that "Africa is not separate from world affairs," Voice of America reports.

In a speech to the Ghana’s parliament in Accra this morning, Mr Obama will hold up the country as an example to other African nations as the kind of place America can 'do business with’.

He is also expected to deliver a 'tough love’ message to the continent’s less favoured regimes, Telegraph.co.uk reports.

Selecting Ghana as the starting point of his black Africa travels, the president sought to highlight a continental success story.

"We think that Ghana can be an extraordinary model for success throughout the continent," Obama told Atta before joining about 350 people for an outdoor breakfast at the castle, The Associated Press reports.