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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, July 9, 2003

EDITORIAL
Bush in Africa: more than just a photo-op?

President Bush kicked off his Africa tour yesterday with a 6-hour stop in Senegal, one of the continent's better-governed countries, where he followed a script that we've seen before.

Although he has gone to great lengths to repeat absolutely nothing done by his predecessor, Bush went to the same slave-trading island that Bill Clinton visited in 1998 to give a very similar speech full of regrets but not apologies about slavery, the birth defect of America.

After meeting in Dakar, Senegal's capital, with West African leaders, Bush and his host, President Abdoulaye Wade, rode the presidential yacht two miles across the harbor to Goree, the westernmost point in Africa and the reputed point of embarkation centuries ago for hundreds of thousands of slaves.

The shipping of slaves from Senegal lasted from 1536 when the Portuguese launched the slave trade to the time the French halted it 312 years later.

Actually historians now doubt that this charming, brilliantly sunlit island, too small for cars, with its sheltered beach and pastel-shaded homes, could have offered sufficient physical infrastructure to be a significant slave trading center. But Goree is a powerful symbol, with its museum and slave house, of a grim past.

In a speech clearly aimed at an American audience, the president described the slave trade, "one of the largest migrations in history," as "also one of the greatest crimes of the century."

As a result, he said, "my nation's journey toward justice has not been easy and it is not over. The racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or segregation. And many of the issues that still trouble America have roots" in that bitter experience.

Bush's five-day trip is intended to focus on promoting democracy, fighting AIDS and increasing trade. Clearly the best way to increase trade, a way Bush staunchly opposes, is to end subsidization of American farms to allow African agriculture to grow beyond subsistence scale and to compete.

As a candidate, Bush showed little interest in Africa. But he has surprised many with proposals for large spending increases to fight AIDS and poverty. Sending American peacekeepers to Liberia, a decision Bush has not yet taken, would be a first step in helping to stem the horrific regional and tribal warfare that bleeds much of Africa.

"The U.S. president," wrote a newspaper at Bush's next stop, South Africa, "will find millions of people looking for something more than speeches: concrete and durable solutions for HIV/AIDS, and a firm commitment to throwing U.S. resources and weight behind ending the (West and Central African) conflicts."