Barack and Michelle Obama.
According to a White House statement issued by the press secretary, the Obama – along with US First Lady Michelle Obama – will be traveling to Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa in order to “reinforce the importance that the United States places on [its] deep and growing ties with countries in sub-Saharan Africa”.
The tour will focus on “expanding economic growth, investment, and trade with the US”.
According the statement, Obama will meet with government, business and civil society leaders, as well as the youth, to discuss bilateral partnerships and global issues.
“The trip will underscore the president’s commitment to broadening and deepening cooperation between the United States and the people of sub-Saharan Africa to advance regional and global peace and prosperity,” the statement said.
Barack Obama last visited South Africa in 2006 while he was senator of Illinois, when he met various justices of the Constitutional Court.
Michelle Obama visited South Africa in 2011 and met with former president Nelson Mandela and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Her planned tour of the apartheid prison Robben Island was cancelled due to bad weather. She then toured the District Six Museum.