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be unaffected by this, and I have no reason ership, and I want to make the most of this to believe that it—that anything different will next 8 hours. So we better go to work, so we occur in a way that’s at all adverse to the part- can get out there and see the people, too. nership we’ve been building with Russia. If I President Rawlings. Thank you very much, sir. know anything else in the next few hours, I’ll President Clinton. Thank you. be glad to tell you. Let me also thank President Rawlings for wel- NOTE: The exchange began at 9:25 a.m. in the coming me here. I have very much looked for- garden at Osu Castle. President Rawlings referred ward to coming to , especially since the to civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. A tape was first time we met in the White House. I admire not available for verification of the content of this the direction this nation is taking under his lead- exchange.

Remarks to the People of Ghana in March 23, 1998

Thank you. President and Mrs. Rawlings, hon- of past troubles remain. But surely, there will orable ministers, honorable members of the come a time when everywhere reconciliation will Council of State, honorable Members of Par- replace recrimination. Now, nations and individ- liament, honorable members of the judiciary, uals finally are free to seek a newer world where nananom [to the chiefs], and the people of democracy and peace and prosperity are not Ghana. Mitsea mu. America fuo kyia mo [My slogans but the essence of a new . greetings to you. Greetings from America]. Now Africa has changed so much in just 10 years. you have shown me what akwaaba [welcome] Dictatorship has been replaced so many places. really means. Thank you, thank you so much. Half of the 48 nations in sub-Saharan Africa I am proud to be the first American President choose their own governments, leading a new ever to visit Ghana and to go on to Uganda, generation willing to learn from the past and Rwanda, South Africa, Botswana, and Senegal. imagine a future. Though democracy has not It is a journey long overdue. America should yet gained a permanent foothold even in most have done it before, and I am proud to be successful nations, there is everywhere a growing on that journey. Thank you for welcoming me. respect for tolerance, diversity, and elemental I want to listen and to learn. I want to build human rights. A decade ago, business was sti- a future partnership between our two people, fled. Now, Africans are embracing economic re- and I want to introduce the people of the form. Today, from Ghana to Mozambique, from United States, through my trip, to the new face Cote d’Ivoire to Uganda, growing economies are of Africa. From Kampala to Cape Town, from fueling a transformation in Africa. Dakar to Dar es Salaam, Africans are being For all this promise, you and I know Africa stirred by new hopes for democracy and peace is not free from peril: the genocide in Rwanda; and prosperity. civil wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, both Congos; Challenges remain, but they must be to all pariah states that export violence and terror; of you a call to action, not a cause for despair. military dictatorship in Nigeria; and high levels You must draw strength from the past and en- of poverty, malnutrition, disease, illiteracy, and ergy from the promise of a new future. My unemployment. To fulfill the vast promise of dream for this trip is that together we might a new era, Africa must face these challenges. do the things so that, 100 years from now, your We must build classrooms and companies, in- grandchildren and mine will look back and say crease the food supply and save the environ- this was the beginning of a new African renais- ment, and prevent disease before deadly sance. epidemics break out. With a new century coming into view, old The United States is ready to help you. First, patterns are fading away: The cold war is gone; my fellow Americans must leave behind the colonialism is gone; apartheid is gone. Remnants stereotypes that have warped our view and

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weakened our understanding of Africa. We need Third, we must allow democracy and pros- to come to know Africa as a place of new begin- perity to take root without violence. We must ning and ancient wisdom from which, as my work to resolve the war and genocide that still wife, our First Lady, said in her book, we have tear at the heart of Africa. We must help Afri- so much to learn. It is time for Americans to cans to prevent future conflicts. put a new Africa on our map. Here in Ghana, you have shown the world Here in Independence Square, Ghana blazed that different peoples can live together in har- the path of that new Africa. More than four mony. You have proved that Africans of different decades ago, proposed what countries can unite to help solve disputes in he called a ‘‘motion of destiny’’ as Ghana neighboring countries. Peace everywhere in Afri- stepped forward as a free and independent na- ca will give more free time and more money tion. Today, Ghana again lights the way for Afri- to the pressing needs of our children’s future. ca. Democracy is spreading. Business is growing. The killing must stop if a new future is to begin. Trade and investment are rising. Ghana has the Fourth and finally, for peace and prosperity only African-owned company today on our New and democracy to prevail, you must protect your York Stock Exchange. magnificent natural domain. Africa is mankind’s first home. We all came out of Africa. We must You have worked hard to preserve the peace preserve the magnificent natural environment in Africa and around the world, from Liberia that is left. We must manage the water and to Lebanon, from Croatia to Cambodia. And forest. We must learn to live in harmony with you have given the world a statesman and peace- other species. You must learn how to fight maker in Kofi Annan to lead the United Na- drought and famine and global warming. And tions. The world admires your success. The we must share with you the technology that United States admires your success. We see it will enable you to preserve your environment taking root throughout the new Africa. And we and provide more economic opportunity to your stand ready to support it. people. First, we want to work with Africa to nurture America has good reason to work with Africa: democracy, knowing it is never perfect or com- 30 million Americans, more than one in ten, plete. We have learned in over 200 years that, proudly trace their heritage here. The first every day, democracy must be defended and Peace Corps volunteers from America came to a more perfect union can always lie ahead. De- Ghana over 35 years ago; over 57,000 have mocracy requires more than the insults and in- served in Africa since then. Through blood ties justice and inequality that so many societies have and common endeavors, we know we share the known and America has known. Democracy re- same hopes and dreams to provide for ourselves quires human rights for everyone, everywhere, and our children, to live in peace and worship for men and women, for children and the elder- freely, to build a better life than our parents ly, for people of different cultures and tribes knew and pass a brighter future on to our chil- and backgrounds. A good society honors its en- dren. America needs Africa, America needs tire family. Ghana as a partner in the fight for a better Second, democracy must have prosperity. future. Americans of both political parties want to in- So many of our problems do not stop at any crease trade and investment in Africa. We have nation’s border; international crime and ter- an ‘‘African Growth and Opportunity Act’’ now rorism and drug trafficking, the degradation of before Congress. Both parties’ leadership are the environment, the spread of diseases like supporting it. By opening markets and building AIDS and malaria, and so many of our opportu- businesses and creating jobs, we can help and nities cannot stop at a nation’s border. We need strengthen each other. By supporting the edu- partners to deepen the meaning of democracy cation of your people, we can strengthen your in America, in Africa, and throughout the world. future and help each other. For centuries, other We need partners to build prosperity. We need nations exploited Africa’s , Africa’s dia- partners to live in peace. We will not build monds, Africa’s minerals. Now is the time for this new partnership overnight, but perseverance Africans to cultivate something more precious, creates its own reward. the mind and heart of the people of Africa, An Ashanti proverb tells us that by coming through education. and going, a bird builds its nest. We will come

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and go with you and do all we can as you live free and equal as brothers and sisters.’’ His build the new Africa, a work that must begin dream became the dream of our Nation and here in Africa, not with aid or trade, though changed us in ways we could never have imag- they are important, but first with ordinary citi- ined. We are hardly finished, but we have trav- zens, especially the young people in this audi- eled a long way on the wings of that dream. ence today. You must feel the winds of freedom Dr. Du Bois, a towering African-American in- blowing at your back, pushing you onward to tellectual, died here as a citizen of Ghana and a brighter future. a friend of Kwame Nkrumah. He once wrote, There are roughly 700 days left until the end ‘‘The habit of democracy must be to encircle of this century and the beginning of a new mil- the Earth.’’ Let us together resolve to complete lennium. There are roughly 700 million Africans the circle of democracy, to dream the dream in sub-Saharan Africa. Every day and every indi- that all people on the entire Earth will be free vidual is a precious opportunity. We do not have and equal, to begin a new century with that a moment to lose, and we do not have a person commitment to freedom and justice for all, to to lose. redeem the promise inscribed right here on I ask you, my friends, to let me indulge a Independence Arch. Let us find a future here moment of our shared history in closing. In 1957 in Africa, the cradle of humanity. our great civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Medase. America dase [I thank you. America came to Accra to help represent our country thanks you]. Thank you, and God bless you. as Ghana celebrated its independence. He was deeply moved by the birth of your nation. Six years later, on the day after W.E.B. Du NOTE: The President spoke at 11:40 a.m. in Inde- Bois died here in Ghana in 1963, Dr. King pendence Square. In his remarks he referred to spoke to an enormous gathering like this in Nana Konadu Rawlings, wife of President Washington. He said these simple words: ‘‘I Rawlings; and United Nations Secretary-General have a dream, a dream that all Americans might Kofi Annan.

Remarks at the TechnoServe/Peace Corps Project Site in Accra March 23, 1998

Thank you very much, Alicia; you did a won- very much for being here. And members of derful job. She said she was nervous, but she the President’s Cabinet: Secretary of Commerce hid it well. Give her another hand. [Applause] Bill Daley, Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, Let me thank again President and Mrs. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, and Rawlings for their wonderful welcome. And I our AID Director Brian Atwood and my Special want to thank the President for his leadership Envoy to Africa, Reverend Jesse Jackson. And for democracy, for economic reform, for the the man who keeps people all over the world economic empowerment of women and the edu- entertained, the owner of Black Entertainment cation of children, and for being willing to take Television, Bob Johnson, is here. a stand for peace in this area. For all those You know, I have traveled all over the world things, I thank him. on behalf of the people of the United States, I thank Ambassador and Mrs. Brynn and the and I think I can say two things without fear distinguished representatives of the Government of being wrong. The welcome I received in of Ghana. I’d also like to, if I might, introduce Independence Square today is the largest wel- the people who came with Hillary and me today, come I have ever received anywhere. And all at least some of them I see there. First, the day long, this is clearly the warmest welcome Members of the United States Congress: I have ever received. Charles Rangel, Ed Royce, Jim McDermott, I am now on my second suit. At this rate, Maxine Waters, Donald Payne, and William Jef- when I get off the airplane in Botswana, I’ll ferson. I think that’s all of them. Thank you be in my swimming trunks. [Laughter] And you

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