President Barack Obama set out on an eight-day trip to Africa on Wednesday that is aimed at reviving U.S. engagement with the continent but that will be overshadowed by the uncertain health of South Africa hero Nelson Mandela.

Obama's trip, his second to the continent as president, will take him to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. While the president hopes to spotlight trade and economic development themes, his visit would be dwarfed if Mandela's condition takes a turn for the worse.

The 94-year old former South African president remained hospitalized in critical condition after being admitted more than two weeks ago with a lung infection, the government said on Tuesday.

Air Force One carried Obama, his wife Michelle, their daughters Sasha and Malia, as well as the first lady's mother, Marian Robinson, and an Obama niece, Leslie Robinson.

Africans feel a special bond with Obama, the first African American U.S. president, and have been impatient for him to make an extended visit to the continent. Africans are also disappointed that the Obama administration has not engaged with the continent as much as the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Administration officials say the trip is an opportunity to jump-start the relationship. Obama's first stop will be Senegal, where he will visit Goree Island, the site of a monument to Africans who were sent to slavery in the Americas.

His next stop will be in South Africa, where aides say he will be available to visit Mandela but will defer to the wishes of the Mandela family to determine whether the former South African leader is up to such an encounter.

In South Africa, Obama is due to make a speech outlining his Africa policy at the University of Cape Town, where Robert F. Kennedy gave his famous 1966 address comparing the struggle against apartheid in South Africa with the struggle for civil rights in the United States.

The president will also visit Robben Island, where Mandela and other political prisoners were held, and visit a health clinic.

Obama's last stop will be in the East African nation of Tanzania, where he will take part in events with business leaders and visit a power plant.

egift: Obama left Washington today with his family to his Trip to Africa.






U.S. President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama (L) and their daughters Sasha and Malia walk to Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington

When Anna Mulli heard that President Obama was planning to visit Africa, she expected him to visit her homeland. Like many of her countrymen, she considers the president a son of Kenya. Obama’s father was Kenyan; many of his relatives, including his grandmother, still live here. During the 2008 and 2012 U.S. presidential elections, Mulli said, she went to church to pray that Obama would win.

“But now he has neglected us,” said Mulli, sighing with disappointment as she entered a downtown Nairobi church for Sunday Mass.

As Obama embarks this week on his first substantial visit to Africa, Kenyans are venting anger and frustration — on social media, in newspaper editorials, on the streets — that their nation is not on his itinerary. Many had long expected Obama to pay a visit to his father’s ancestral home and allow Kenyans to embrace him, just like the Irish did during his emotional 2011 trip to Ireland, from where his mother’s ancestors hailed. Instead, Obama will visit Senegal, South Africa and neighboring Tanzania, whose capital, Dar es Salaam, is less than an hour’s flight from Nairobi.

“Just come and visit your grandma, Obama!” implored the headline of a blog post on the local radio station Capital FM’s Web site.

Beneath the surface, the presidential snub, as many Kenyans describe it, has spawned soul-searching over their choice of leadership and whether their nation is still the main U.S. ally in East Africa. Some even fear that the snub could make it more difficult for Kenya to attract foreign investment and tourists, dealing a blow to the nation’s economy.

Many Kenyans say the United States is punishing them for electing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his vice president, William Ruto, in March. The International Criminal Court has charged both men with orchestrating ethnic mobs to kill and pillage in the aftermath of the 2007 elections; they are set to face trial at The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity. During the run-up to this year’s elections, then-assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson publicly warned Kenyans that “choices have consequences.”

Last week, deputy national security adviser Benjamin J. Rhodes said that the “Kenyan people hold a special place in the president’s heart” and that the United States would work with Kenyatta. But Rhodes also made clear that the ICC charges were a concern. “It just wasn’t the best time for the president to travel to Kenya,” he told reporters in Washington.

Obama would not be the first Western leader reluctant to meet Kenyatta and Ruto. Last month, at a London meeting to assist Somalia, British Prime Minister David Cameron refused to be photographed with Kenyatta, according to British news reports, apparently fearing a backlash if the Kenyan leader was found guilty of the ICC charges.

‘Doesn’t want to taint his name’

In interviews, some Kenyans said that despite their disappointment, they understood why Obama is skipping their country on this visit. “I really wished he would have come to Kenya, to his roots,” said Sam Ombeki, 55, a community development organizer. “But let’s not pretend, either. There are a lot of questions about the integrity of our leadership. Obama doesn’t want to taint his name.”

In Africa, Obama praises George W. Bush

JOHANNESBURG — President Obama on Friday paid homage to his predecessor’s legacy in Africa, praising George W. Bush for his effort to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS on the continent.

Bush “deserves enormous credit,” Obama told reporters aboard Air Force One during an eight-hour flight from Senegal to this South African city, the second stop on his trip.

Citing the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which launched under Bush, in 2003, Obama said the program has saved millions of lives. The U.S. committed $15 billion in the first five years of the program under Bush, and the Obama administration has continued to fund it.

But Obama said budget constraints since he took office on the brink of a worldwide recession has left his administration in a difficult position when it comes to trying to invest more in Africa.

“Given the budget constraints, for us to try to get the kind of money that President Bush was able to get out of the Republican House for massively scaled new foreign aid programs is very difficult,” Obama said. “We could do even more with more resources. But if we’re working smarter, the amount of good that we can bring about over the next decade is tremendous.”

The president announced new U.S. aid for Senegal under a food security program to help enable farmers gain access to rice and sweet potato seeds. In Tanzania on Monday, Obama will highlight energy programs to give more parts of the continent access to electricity.

But the overarching goal of the administration’s policy, he said, was to change the paradigm from a donor-recipient relationship to one of more equal partners.

“Everything we do is designed to make sure that Africa is not viewed as a dependent, as a charity case, but is instead viewed as a partner,” Obama said. “Instead of chronically receiving aid, it is starting to get involved in trade, get involved in production, and over time is going to be able to feed itself, house itself and produce its own goods. And that’s what Africa wants.”

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