Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, Cameron Hudson, Center for Strategic & International Studies:
By the time the United States hosted its first ever U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in August 2014, President Barack Obama had already visited Africa twice. In 2009, he had delivered two historic speeches, one to the Muslim World in Cairo, Egypt, and the other to Africans in Accra, Ghana. From the halls of Ghana’s parliament, Obama had called for the end of strongmen and dictatorships and signaled his administration’s support to emerging democracies. In 2010, a year into his first term, he had launched the Young African Leaders Initiative. Three years later, in 2013, the president had visited Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania where he announced the Power Africa initiative, a U.S.-Africa energy partnership, which aimed to double access to electricity across the continent. That same year, the administration also initiated Trade Africa.
