While all eyes are on Barack Obama's transition to the U.S. presidency, another historic transition has taken place elsewhere, quietly and without much fanfare. It happened in the West African country of Ghana, where opposition leader John Atta Mills became president last week. He won a run-off election in the closest vote in the country's history.

Tensions ran high in the race, and many feared that a close vote would spark violence, as it had in Kenya last year. But after Mills' razor-thin victory, the outgoing president called for calm and cooperation. For many, it's evidence that Ghana has become a beacon of democracy on the volatile African continent.

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