President Bush Jaunts Across Africa

President George W. Bush shares a laugh with local musicians in Ghana.

Jim Watson, AFP/Getty Images

When an American president is about to leave office, he typically packs up the presidential slippers, clears the penned-on mustache off the Nixon portraits, and makes a good-will trip to Africa. President Bush is now traversing the continent making quick stops in Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ghana.

Today, he concludes his tour in Liberia. The New York Times presents an interesting piece about the nation whose creation came out of the repatriation of American slaves in 1820:

It has been 30 years since a sitting president of the United States has visited this West African nation, and in the decades since, rebel generals with nicknames like Butt Naked laid waste to this seaside country, raping and plundering, and a brutal warlord named Charles G. Taylor campaigned for the presidency under the slogan, "He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him anyway." Now Mr. Taylor is gone, pushed out in 2003 after more than a decade of civil war, and Liberia is taking tender steps toward recovery under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to be democratically elected president in modern Africa. On Thursday, Air Force One touched down at the airport near Monrovia, and a sitting president of the United States -- George W. Bush -- stepped onto Liberian soil once again.

How will Bush's legacy in Africa be remembered? What kind of relationship should America have with Liberia? Do you think these trips make lasting political change, or are they just photo ops?

If you're more interested in some visuals, check out the astute photographic coverage by Stereohyped.

Drew Tewksbury

Tags: Africa | Liberia | President Bush

6:54 PM ET | 02-21-2008 | permalink

comments | | e-mail