U.S. presidential visits to Sub-Saharan Africa

Crowds surge during Clinton's visit to Ghana

Clinton and Mandela

During his 1998 visit to South Africa, Clinton toured Robben Island with Nelson Mandela, who had been held there as a political prisoner.

A new moment of promise

In July 2009, Obama spoke in Ghana about Africa's future focusing on human rights, democracy and America's role in promoting better governance on the continent in a speech titled "A New Moment of Promise."

Bush and Mbeki

Image courtesy of the State Department

President Bush spoke with South African President Thabo Mbeki while visiting Pretoria, South Africa in 2003.

The full text of their speech is available through State Department Archives.

Bush in Senegal

President Bush meets with President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, Senegal, July 8, 2003. | Paul Morse/White House

President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush join President Wade and his wife, Viviane Wade, in a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, Senegal, July 8, 2003. | Paul Morse/White House

President Bush departs a meeting with leaders of Western African democracies at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, Senegal, July 8, 2003. Leaders from Benin, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone met with Bush at the summit. | Paul Morse/White House

President Bush and President Wade ride aboard the Senegalese Presidential Yacht on July 8, 2003. | Paul Morse/White House

President Bush and Laura Bush tour the Slave House on Goree Island, Senegal, with President Wade and Viviane Wade of Senegal, Secretary of State Colin Powell, far left and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on July 8, 2003. | Paul Morse/White House

President Bush delivers remarks after touring Goree Island, Senegal, on July 8, 2003. "For hundreds of years on this island peoples of different continents met in fear and cruelty. Today we gather in respect and friendship, mindful of past wrongs and dedicated to the advance of human liberty," said the President. | Paul Morse/White House

The first president to visit Sub-Saharan Africa

President Roosevelt was the first sitting U.S. president to travel to Sub-Saharan Africa.

He stopped in Liberia on his return trip from visiting troops in Northern Africa.

The U.S. president returns to Liberia

Jimmy Carter visited Liberia in 1978, 35 years after Roosevelt did as the first U.S. president to visit the continent.

The stop in Liberia followed Carter's trip to Nigeria, the first U.S. state visit to Africa.

The first U.S. state visit to Africa

President Carter held the first U.S. state visit to Africa, meeting with President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria in 1978.

Roosevelt had previously traveled to Liberia during World War II, but that was an informal visit while returning from seeing the war effort.

The Millenium Challenge

In Tanzania, Bush met with President Jakaya Kikwete and signed a Millenium Challenge Agreement. The Millenium Challenge Corporation focuses on using U.S. aid to improve the conditions within impoverished nations.

Bush dedicates Rwandan embassy

Flanked by saluting U.S. Marines President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush pause for a moment of silence after laying a wreath on a mass grave at the genocide memorial on Feb. 19, 2008, at the Kigali Memorial Centre in Kigali, Rwanda. | Eric Draper/White House

President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush pause for a moment of silence after laying a wreath on a mass grave at the genocide memorial at the Kigali Memorial Centre in Kigali, Rwanda on Feb. 19, 2008. | Shealah Craighead/White House

President Bush and Rwanda President Paul Kagame shake hands after signing a Bilateral Investment Treaty on Feb. 19, 2008, at the Presidency in Kigali, Rwanda. | Shealah Craighead/White House

Bush visits relief workers, troops in Somalia