Some analy­sis now of Hillary Clinton’s trip to Africa. The U.S. Sec­re­tary of State just fin­ished her visit of a cou­ple of nations on the continent.

Many thought that Africa would become a pri­or­ity for the Obama admin­is­tra­tion with new pri­or­i­ties and new aid. But the visit proved that it would be more of the same from this administration.

From this Asso­ci­ated Press analy­sis peace, reporter Sue Plem­ing sur­veys some of the reac­tion to the visit.

For the most part, experts said the 11-day, seven-nation trip was a good­will and lis­ten­ing tour, fol­low­ing up after U.S. Pres­i­dent Barack Obama’s one-stop Africa trip to Ghana in July.

“I expected more than just the hug­ging of the sta­tus quo,” said Africa expert Bron­wyn Bru­ton of the Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions in Washington.

“I have the impres­sion that she reached out and let it be known that Africa is on the radar, but Clin­ton is also try­ing to make the most of the exist­ing frame­work,” she added.

The trip was her longest as sec­re­tary of state and aimed at prov­ing Africa was a pri­or­ity for the first African-American U.S. pres­i­dent, whose father was from Kenya.

But no major ini­tia­tives or “good­ies” were announced, except for $17 mil­lion in new aid for sex­ual vio­lence vic­tims in Demo­c­ra­tic Repub­lic of Congo and fund­ing for AIDS programmes.

“There were enor­mous expec­ta­tions after Obama was elected and after the inau­gu­ra­tion. Peo­ple thought that the flood gate of aid will be opened but now they are aware of the lim­i­ta­tions,” said Tom Wheeler of the South African Insti­tute of Inter­na­tional Affairs.

Africa poli­cies are still being for­mu­lated in two key places — Sudan and Soma­lia — and domes­tic pol­i­tics from health care to the eco­nomic cri­sis are priorities.

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