The ways Africa outperforms America
Resize Text
Print Article
Here are 14 of the week’s best photos
Skip Ad
×
Caption
From mobile to marathoners, some countries on this continent have successes that visiting President Obama could only hope for. The Washington Post’s Africa bureau chief, Sudarsan Raghavan, lists a few of them.
1. Mobile technologies The region is much less dependent on land lines and personal computers. In Nigeria, 19 out of 20 phones are mobile. Africans were years ahead of America in widespread texting and reading by phone. And, like much of the world, the bill is often much cheaper than in the United States. Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images
Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
President’s welcome on the continent will still be warm, but many believe he has not delivered on promised plans.
President Obama will travel to sub-Saharan Africa and the price tag for the trip clocks in between $60 million to $100 million. The Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig got access to classified documents outlining the trip. Update: The White House has cancelled the safari for this trip.