--- title: President Obama Africa Trip: See the First President to Visit Africa description: President Obama visits Kenya and Ethiopia this month. The first U.S. president to visit Africa did so in very different circumstances. canonical: https://time.com/3962496/obama-africa-trip-history-roosevelt/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-23T11:00:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:31.439Z article:section: History og:title: President Obama Africa Trip: See the First President to Visit Africa og:description: President Obama visits Kenya and Ethiopia this month og:url: https://time.com/3962496/obama-africa-trip-history-roosevelt/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93257eb8d2d8fc73/69885b6c0b72e349da6e4f8d/fdr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: FDR Inspects The Troops og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Africa Trip: See the First President to Visit Africa twitter:description: President Obama visits Kenya and Ethiopia this month twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93257eb8d2d8fc73/69885b6c0b72e349da6e4f8d/fdr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Was the First Time a Sitting U.S. President Visited Africa > Sponsored content. 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Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers. #### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine? Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. Choose digital only at $20 a year, or print and digital from $29 a year or $49 for two years. TIME also publishes seven free email newsletters at time.com/newsletters, which do not require a subscription. #### Can I cancel a TIME subscription? Yes. TIME states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. #### Does TIME have free newsletters? Yes. TIME publishes seven free email newsletters reaching more than 1.1 million readers, covering daily news, Washington politics, health, AI, climate and energy, culture, and the newsroom itself. They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=ca204698-9d12-4955-8152-ea73e1820248&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=ca204698-9d12-4955-8152-ea73e1820248&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Bremmer: What Does America Stand For? [Watch (HLS stream): Bremmer: What Does America Stand For?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LslU7mTn.m3u8) (3:55)  _Published 2015-05-03. As the world's only superpower, Bremmer argues that the United States must look towards the next stage of China's rise_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 23, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Franklin D. Roosevelt (in suit, seated in jeep at left) reviews US troops as military commander Lieutenant General George S. Patton (right), Casablanca, Morocco, Jan. 17, 1943. Franklin D. Roosevelt (in suit, seated in jeep at left) reviews US troops as military commander Lieutenant General George S. Patton (right), Casablanca, Morocco, Jan. 17, 1943. PhotoQuest / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 23, 2015 11:00 AM UTC President Obama [travels](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/30/statement-press-secretary-global-entrepreneurship-summit-and-president-s) to Kenya on Thursday to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and then continues his African trip with a visit to Ethiopia, the first time a sitting U.S. president will visit that country. He’ll be focused on global business and peaceful diplomacy—a far cry from what happened with the first sitting president to visit Africa. When Franklin D. Roosevelt landed on the continent 72 years ago amid World War II, it was the first time since the Civil War that a sitting president had visited an active war zone, as well as the first time ever that one had traveled by plane. The occasion was Roosevelt’s January 1943 visit to Casablanca to discuss the conflict with Winston Churchill. As TIME reported shortly after, the trip was a fruitful one. The air-travel part of the plan was kept secret—an important concern given that the president’s plane was flying over an ocean patrolled by Axis planes and ships—but, once he arrived safely and the meetings got underway, the world was looped in on what had happened: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story from 1943, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Appointment in Africa](http://time.com/vault/issue/1943-02-01/page/13/) ## Transcript The biggest question that both Americans have as well as our allies around the world, are what we stand for. There's a lack of foreign policy strategy. You know, we had a, a world where geopolitics were both very stable but very dangerous. We're now entering a To a world that is both unstable and dangerous. And it's at this precise time that Americans are saying, yeah, we're the super power, but we don't necessarily know what we want to do with it. What do we stand for? Who are we in the world? There are three foreign policy choices This is that I believe that Americans have. And they're very, very different. The first, I would call indispensable America. And indispensable America means that, you know, we don't necessarily want to be the world's Policemen, but the fact is no one else is gonna do it, no one else wants to, no one else is remotely capable, and if there is a power vacuum, that's going to hurt everyone, including us. We have to still be in charge in Sort of building and supporting international institutions. We have to still be the vanguard for promoting values that matter to us. A second choice, a very different choice, is moneyball America. This idea that the United States, we're still the richest country in the world. But the idea that we're gonna promote democracy everywhere There's a lot of pushback from that. What we're gonna do is really spend the money, spend our resources, in the places that really matter the most for us. The third choice, a very different choice, independent America. In independent America says we are still the world's only super power and our values are important. But those values are not important in telling everyone else what to do and how to be. The values are important in actually living by them ourselves and actually leading the world by example. Independent America means that if other countries in the world have big problems, other countries in the world are going to have to fix them. America's not there to send its troops all over the world. America's not there to tell them how they have to act. There's been a lot of hypocrisy on that front. But America is going to be a sterling example so that people will have something to look to and say, we'd like to change our system ourselves. Because that seems to work a little bit better than our system does. These are three radically different perspectives. On what the world's only super power can do with that super power. To shape the world in a way that will be not only more We can do stuff for Americans today. But also give's us th e best chance of having a bright future. It needs to start from the leadership. They need an American leader that tells them this is what we're gonna do. It's been so much easier for China, they're so much smaller. And yet they have the ability to actually say here's the policy. We're We're gonna build, we're gonna build our own concept of a Marshall Plan. Pumping, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars into countries over land, over sea, in the region, to get them to be more aligned with Chinese interests. Americans did that once. We did it with the Marshall Plan. Money that a lot of Americans, I'm sure, would have rather spent At home, but it was the best money we could of spent because long term, that money helped to create a world order that was more aligned with the american national interest. Is there anyone in America with With influence today that is even remotely suggesting that that's something the United States should do. Of course there isn't. It can't just be drift. You cannot drift in the geopolitical environment that we are presently in. It's too dangerous for everyone else. It's too dangerous for ourself. 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