JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Welcome back to Africa, Barack Obama.
The colorful banners are up and the local people are excited — but, um, maybe not so much as the last time.
When the US president lands in Senegal late Wednesday on his first visit to the continent in four years, he will come laden with the weight of surveillance scandals at home and disillusionment abroad.
Obama’s visit to Ghana in 2009, a brief stopover of less than 24 hours, was during the halcyon days at the start of his first term. Africans were still joyously celebrating that the son of a black Kenyan man had been elected president of the United States.