Accra, Ghana ? It’s the Rocker and the Republican, on Africa Cliche-Breaking Tour 2002.

Singer Bono and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill embarked Tuesday on a four-nation odyssey: the activist pop star, Bono, bent on convincing the skeptical politico, O’Neill, that Africa puts Western development aid to good use.

U2's Bono, center, talks to a computer as U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, right, watches during a visit to the ACS-BPS Computer services Inc. office in Accra, Ghana. O'Neill and Bono are visiting Ghana for two days.

“I come here to learn,” promised O’Neill, who was talked into the trip by the Irish singer.

“Normally, when we hear a secretary of state is visiting, it’s usually an all suit-and-tie affair,” President John Kufuor joked, smiling at meeting the shaggy-haired singer in trademark blue wraparound shades.

Bono and O’Neill, in an equally to-type gray suit, set the tone for the 10-day trip from the first stop Tuesday no mud-hut village, but a gleaming high-tech center in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

O’Neill watched approvingly as young Ghanaian women input data for the U.S.-based firm ACS-BPS.

Fighting a ‘cliched’ view

Bono and O’Neill listened attentively as company President Tom Blodgett answered questions about the workers’ pay and benefits.

“It is really an experience to see these well-trained people,” O’Neill told an international retinue of rock ‘n’ roll, financial and political reporters.

“It’s equal to anything you can find in the world,” the treasury secretary said.

Bono sat on a low wall, swinging his feet while O’Neill talked. The sleek high-tech operation showed it was possible to recast Africa’s image, the singer told reporters.

“I really loathe the cliched, international view of Africa. I don’t think it is helpful,” Bono said.

Similar stereotype-shattering is planned during stops in South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia.

O’Neill has been a vocal critic of past anti-poverty programs in Africa, saying they failed to generate real development and so wasted billions of dollars.

Meeting of the minds

The idea of a joint trip was hatched a year ago, when the two men met in O’Neill’s office. Bono, who has campaigned for years to focus the attention of rich nations on the plight of Africa, asked for the session.

Initially reluctant, O’Neill finally agreed to meet Bono, and later said he was impressed by the U2 singer’s knowledge of Africa’s problems.

Bono has campaigned to get the Group of Eight top industrial countries to provide greater debt relief for the world’s poorest countries.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the issue of fighting poverty to eliminate a breeding ground for terrorists has gained momentum. It will be a top agenda item of the G-8 countries at their June summit in Canada.

In an effort to learn what kind of aid really works, O’Neill and Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, will visit AIDS clinics, schools and projects sponsored by the World Bank and other development agencies.

“I want to hear their hopes and dreams, and I hope they share with me their insights into how best to eliminate the obstacles to Africa’s prosperity,” O’Neill told the American Chamber of Commerce in Accra.

At stake, indirectly: $10 billion promised by the Bush administration in a new foreign aid program called Millennium Challenge Accounts.

The money is to be distributed between 2004 and 2006 but primarily to those countries that show progress eliminating corruption and reforming their financial systems.

O’Neill said African countries needed to govern justly, encourage economic freedom by removing trade barriers and to invest in their people.

President Kufuor said Ghana, a former British colony that in 1957 became the first African country to gain independence, needed U.S. support to develop.

“It is not aid in terms of alms or handouts,” he told O’Neill. “We are proud people. We want to do things for ourselves but we need to develop the human resources.”