Obama arrives in Ghana

ACCRA, Ghana, July 10 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama arrived in Ghana with his family Friday evening, welcomed by thousands of people angling for a glimpse of the first black U.S. president.

The visit is Obama's first as president to sub-Saharan Africa. He chose Egypt as the site for a major speech on Mideast policy this year.

The streets of the capital, Accra, were hung with banners and billboards showing Obama's picture. Emmanuel Tsawe plastered Obama posters on his 43-seat bus, Ghana News reported.

"It's a great moment for Ghana and Africa," Tsawe said. "We have to celebrate our own."

Obama's father was from Kenya, thousands of miles away on Africa's east coast. But Ghanaians claimed him as their own.

Obama is the third U.S. president to visit Ghana in little more than a decade. President Bill Clinton made the trip in 1998 and President George W. Bush, who has a highway named after him, in 2008.

Obama told the Web site AllAfrica.com he selected Ghana because of its history of stability and good government.

"Countries that are governed well, that are stable, where the leadership recognizes that they are accountable to the people and that institutions are stronger than any one person have a track record of producing results for the people," he said. "And we want to highlight that."