13 February 2008

U.S.-Africa Relations Chronology

The United States established diplomatic relations with Liberia in 1862 to begin a 146-year commitment and relationship with the people and nations of Africa.  President Bush's February 15-21, 2008, visit to five African nations continues that long tradition.

February 15-21, 2008

President Bush makes his second trip to Africa when he visits Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Rwanda and Tanzania.

January 23, 2008

Secretary of state delivers keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and notes American assistance to Africa has quadrupled since 2001.

February 6, 2007

U.S. Department of Defense announces the creation of a new U.S. Africa Command headquarters, to be known as AFRICOM, to coordinate all U.S. military and security interests throughout the continent.

March 2006

U.S. Commerce Department releases U.S.-Africa trade figures for 2005, showing that American imports from African countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) increased 44 percent from 2004, to $38.1 billion.

July 2005

Leaders of the world's leading industrialized countries (the G8) pledge to step up development aid by $50 billion by 2010, with half of the increase going to Africa.

June 2005

President Bush announces the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI).

June 2005

President Bush announces approximately $55 million to support women's justice and empowerment in Africa.

June 2004

President Bush leads his G8 partners in a meeting with African leaders from Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. Their discussion focuses on the challenges faced by Africa, including promoting private-sector-led growth, combating HIV/AIDS and poverty.

2004

President Bush establishes the Millennium Challenge Corporation to reduce global poverty through the promotion of sustainable economic growth. Thirty-two African countries are on the list of 63 countries eligible to submit proposals for funding.

August 2003

Liberian President Charles Taylor goes into exile under pressure from the United States and other nations, and a small American force joins Nigerian peacekeepers in an effort to bring stability to the war-torn country.

July 8-12, 2003

President Bush visits five nations (Botswana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda) in sub-Saharan Africa.

February 2003

President Bush announces an important new effort to combat famine and hunger worldwide, recognizing that 30 million people in Africa are at risk of starvation or are facing severe food shortages, including 14 million people in Ethiopia alone.

January 2003

President Bush announces the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

July 2001

President Bush introduces the Africa Education Initiative to strengthen basic education in Africa.

July 2000

The United States agrees with Botswana to establish an International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) for southern Africa.

1999

Congress passes the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), aimed at spurring exports from Africa to the United States.

August 7, 1998

U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are bombed; attacks later linked to al-Qaida.

March 23-April 2, 1998

Bill Clinton pays the first visit to sub-Saharan Africa by a U.S. president in 20 years.

June 1996

Leland Initiative begins to help bring the benefits of the information revolution to the people of Africa.

1995

United States backs special international war crime tribunals for Rwanda following widespread massacres in 1994.

1993

President Clinton withdraws U.S. troops from Somalia.

December 9, 1992

U.S. forces enter Somalia at the beginning of Operation Restore Hope, a joint U.N.-U.S. effort to provide food relief to starving victims of Somalia's civil war.

October 27, 1986

U.S. Congress passes the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act.

July 13, 1985

African famine victims are aided by $70 million from all-day rock concerts in 152 countries. After a July 5 U.N. report of a food crisis in Africa, "Live Aid" becomes the publicity title for two rock concerts in Philadelphia and London. Seven other concerts, broadcast by intercontinental satellite communications, reach an audience of 1.5 billion people. Sales of a recording titled "We Are the World," by American musicians, raise $45 million. Sales of "Do They Know It's Christmas," by the British Band Aid Group, raise $11 million.

March 31-April 3, 1978

First state visit by a president of the United States to sub-Saharan Africa when President Jimmy Carter meets with President Olusegun Obasanjo in Lagos, Nigeria, and President William Tolbert in Monrovia, Liberia.

1974

The United States and more than 100 other nations at the World Food Conference in Rome pledge that within a decade no child will go hungry.

June 4, 1961

The first American Peace Corps volunteers go to Ghana.

1961

By executive order, President John F. Kennedy creates the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to assist the developing world.

September 1958

U.S. Department of State's Bureau of African Affairs is established.

January 26-27, 1943

President Franklin D. Roosevelt has informal visit with President Barclay in Monrovia, Liberia.