Clinton's African tour

U.S. President Bill Clinton danced with African children, visited a primary school with dirt floors, and met with six survivors of the April 1994 genocide in Rwanda during his six-day tour of the Dark Continent, before highlighting his trip with a summit meeting with seven African leaders on the shores of Uganda's Lake Victoria.

Besides Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who hosted the three-hour summit, others who attended the meeting on Wednesday were presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and the prime minister of Ethiopia as well as the secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity.

This Summit for Peace and Prosperity endorsed a new relationship between the United States and the African nations on the basis of deepened respect for human rights and increased trade.

Clinton's African trip, the first by an incumbent U.S. president in 20 years after a visit by then president Jimmy Carter in 1978, signifies Washington's new approach to the emerging roles of some nations in the eastern and central part of the continent, mainly believed to be a place of famine, AIDS and political turmoil.

Over the past two decades, Africa has undergone great changes. Uganda, for example, has succeeded in exercising democracy, lifting its people from political and economic oppression imposed by the country's former military rulers. Apartheid has also been wiped out in South Africa, while other nations in the region have begun political and economic reforms.

During the visit, Clinton has clearly signaled growing U.S. interest in the continent by pledging US$120 million in aid for African schools to improve the education standard as well as connect African children to the Internet.

Clinton also pledged other aid packages amounting to more than $75 million for research to combat malaria as well as to increase food production in four of the six nations he visited.

The African people and nations accorded Clinton warmly not because of the aid, but because of the new and friendlier approach undertaken by Washington. This was reflected in the words of an African diplomat who said: "The Americans used to come here and tell us how we should run our affairs. Now they come along and ask how can they help."

Despite his friendly gestures, Clinton, however, has firmly stated that although he understands that "democracy takes many shapes and may take time to evolve" he nevertheless expects the African leaders give their people more freedom.

As Clinton's African visit occurred at a time when U.S. major traditional trading partners in Asia have been hit by monetary crisis crippling their economies, the trip can be seen as part of his strategy to expand U.S. influence in and boost economic ties with emerging countries on the continent. Clinton has done that job very well.

Besides, his diplomatic bravura in Africa may help restore his image, which has been tainted by a sex scandal, in the eyes of ordinary Americans.