Africa and Obama: What the Continent Should Do in His Second Term

Euphoria swept across Sub-Saharan Africa when Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the United States in 2008. Kenya, the ancestral home of his father, declared a national holiday to mark his victory.

His re-election in 2012 has generated little celebration. This is mainly because in the last four years Africa has learned to relate to President Obama as a leader of another sovereign state and not as a relative of whom much is expected.

President Obama’s seeming distance from the continent has helped Africa to reflect on its place in the world in a more mature and self-reliant way. [This article appears in its entirety on Forbes.com. Read more here.]