The Clintons got me hooked again

The first time I heard of Bill Clinton was in 6th grade in Accra. Our school had decided that only members of the brain buster team were going to meet and greet the American president on his first visit to the continent. In our case, we were going to stand on the pavements and wave at the American president in his limousine as he was being escorted by the president of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings, to the Independence Square in Accra.

While my young mind was processing what it meant to participate on the historic occasion of President Clinton's visit to Ghana, I was even struck by the fact that at the time of his visit, Bill Clinton was going to be the first president of the United States to visit the continent while in power.

Clinton earned my respect when he made a move, which has since changed the world's opinion about a continent that had been ignored by the west. As he addressed the largest crowd he had ever addressed in his political career, Clinton said, "My dream for this trip is that together we might do the things so that 100 years from now your grandchildren and mine will look back and say this was the beginning of a new African renaissance."

Clinton was determined to begin a discourse that was not only going to go down in posterity as the beginning of great changes between Western perception and reality with Africa, but also to show the world how to embrace the unknown, unfamiliar and often misunderstood.

He wasn't ducking from any issues when he addressed the crowd at the Independence Square. In his speech, he said, "The Cold War is gone. Colonialism is gone. Apartheid is gone. Yet remnants of past troubles remain." It was because of those troubles that Clinton visited Africa as a president still in charge and not one who simply came by after he had lost his election. He presented himself as one who faced situations head on.

Several years after Clinton's visit to Ghana, and several parts of Africa, the continent has felt the impact of his visit. Other world leaders have "swept through" because of his example. While the continent has significant strides to make in order to play its role as the home of all things natural, authentic and good, it certainly benefited from the Clinton years and has benefiting from his recent HIV related work there.

During the recent primaries however, I felt I didn't know who Clinton was. At times, I was compelled to think age had changed him or that I probably didn't understand him all along. Since I was a kid when I first listened to his speeches, I assumed I was simply carried away by the buzz that was created on his six-hour stop in Accra. The guy whose speeches my friends and I used to memorize phrases from when watching CNN was making remarks that confused my sense of his openness to discourse, civility and sincere dialogue.

During the primaries, there were occasions when I simply didn't want to hear anything Clinton had to say because I feared it might be too divisive and destructive for me to keep the respect I had for him intact.

It must be difficult to be Bill Clinton. It must be difficult to be a man who stands by groups and communities that others are not ready to embrace. It must be difficult to be a man who advocates for causes related and sometimes unrelated to the true ideals of the country he led and leads in different ways. It must even be more difficult to work so hard to help a section of society only for them to hesitate to support you at a time when you needed them most. To ask your fans to decide between your family and their family is not always an easy decision to make.

The Democratic presidential primary has been brutal on Bill and Hillary. They seem scraped and wounded but they have certainly come out stronger. They had every right to vote however they pleased. After all, that is part of their inalienable right as Americans. They could have been less enthusiastic and more subtle. They could have feigned sickness or created an emergency. They could have selected their words less carefully and left their supporters to choose whoever they pleased. But after Hillary's Tuesday night endorsement and Bill's seal of support and approval last night, I feel they were playing games all this while. The Clintons seem to have been savoring their best move for now. Bill and Hillary delivered grandly, judiciously, eloquently and perfectly.

As I listened to Bill last night, I remembered the man of ideas and creative vision whose ability to charm crowds was infused with truth, fact and charm.

A master of words, a preacher of truth, a man who can hold the crowd at his finger tips and whose charm and eloquence simply make him irresistible not only to cameras but crowds,  Bill's endorsement of Obama sealed a nomination process that had turned a bit too divisive and hurtful. But like he said and acted in Accra some 10 years ago, I am once again a witness of a man whose words have been confirmed by his recent actions. He was right when he said to the crowd back in Accra in 1998, "surely there will come a time when reconciliation will replace recrimination." The Clintons have certainly won my respect again.