U.S First Lady, Jill Biden is expected in Namibia on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 as she begins a five-day visit to Africa that will also take her to Kenya.
The White House said the visit will boost US partnerships in Africa and further mutual priorities for the continent.
Jill Biden is the fifth high-profile US official to visit the continent since the US-Africa leaders in Washington last December.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Ambassador to the UN; Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; Molly Phee and US-Africa leaders’ summit representative; Johnnie Carson are the other senior officials who have visited the continent since the summit.
Analysts say the US’s renewed focus on Africa is an attempt to counter Chinese and Russian influence.
Sixth Visit To Africa, Her First As First Lady
It will be Jill Biden’s sixth time in Africa when she arrives in Namibia on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 as part of a commitment by President Joe Biden to deepen U.S. engagement with the fast-growing region.
It is her first visit as first lady, though and she will be following in the footsteps of her recent predecessors, who all made the trip across the Atlantic Ocean in the name of trying to help foster goodwill toward the United States.
During five days split between Namibia, located along the Atlantic coast in southern Africa, and Kenya, in the east, Jill Biden will focus on empowering women and young people, and highlight food insecurity in the Horn of Africa caused by a devastating drought, Russia’s war in Ukraine and other factors.
As she departed Washington on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, the First Lady declared, “We have a lot to accomplish.”
Africa is the fastest-growing and youngest region in the world, according to the White House, which says 1 of every 4 people in the world will be African by 2050.
The White House has withheld specific details of the first lady’s activities in each country, citing security concerns.
Jill Biden previously visited Africa in 2010, 2011, twice in 2014 and once in 2016, all during Joe Biden’s service as U.S. Vice President. Two of those trips were with him.
This time, Jill Biden is traveling to Africa without the President as he wraps up his own trip to Poland to mark Friday’s anniversary of Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine.
Patricia Nixon was the first First Lady to travel to Africa on her own. She went as President Richard Nixon’s “personal representative” to Liberia, Ghana and the Ivory Coast in 1972.
Patricia Nixon addressed legislative bodies and met with African leaders about U.S. policy toward the country now known as Zimbabwe, and human rights in South Africa, according to the National First Ladies’ Library.
Other First Ladies Have Made Visits To Africa
Melania Trump visited for the first time as First Lady in 2018, where she spent five days making stops in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt to promote U.S. developmental aid and education, cradle babies and highlight animal and historic preservation.
Michelle Obama visited Ghana with President Barack Obama in 2009, his first year in office. She went to South Africa and Botswana on a goodwill mission in the summer of 2011 to promote youth leadership, education and HIV/AIDS awareness.
The centerpiece of the weeklong trip by America’s first Black first lady was a 30-minute speech at a U.S.-sponsored leadership conference at a church in Soweto township.
Mrs. Obama made a second solo visit to Africa in June 2016, the final year of the Obama administration. In Liberia and Morocco, she promoted her “Let Girls Learn” initiative to encourage developing countries to educate girls.
Laura Bush, as well as, Hillary Clinton also made visits to Africa during their respective tenures as First Ladies.
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