Statements that reinforce stereotypes:

· There was a time in the not-too-distant past when a trip to Africa by a senior United States official would focus largely on humanitarian aid and development assistance to hopelessly poor, war-torn nations.

· If a collection of more than 50 nations that is home to a billion people who speak thousands of languages could be said to have a narrative, until recently it was one dominated, fairly or not, by war, famine and misrule.

Statements that contradict stereotypes:

· But these companies need no introduction to the continent, which is home to 7 of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies. They are already here. Earlier this year, Walmart finalized a deal worth more than $2 billion to acquire 51 percent of South Africa’s leading retailer, MassMart.  G.E. has signed a deal with the Nigerian government to work together on infrastructure and power projects. Six hundred American companies have invested in South Africa alone.

· These days, the continent is widely seen as the next frontier for economic growth. Politically, African votes are sometimes crucial in the United Nations, particularly South Africa’s. On the security front, alliances with African governments to fight terrorism and piracy are very important to the United States.

· “China is recognizing the potential, and the U.S. is not grasping these opportunities,” said Peter Lewis, an expert on Africa at Johns Hopkins University.

· Those wars have, with a few notable exceptions, largely ended. Even Somalia, the very picture of a failed African state, has begun to turn around. Many of Africa’s democracies have grown stronger, even in adversity and despite setbacks in places like Mali.

· But the biggest change is economic. The growth rate for the continent has crept up, rivaling Asia’s overall growth at the height of the “tiger economy” era of the 1990s, and it could reach 7 percent by 2015, according to the United Nations Development Program.

· On this trip, Mrs. Clinton has taken pains to visit countries that are exemplars of democratic success. She began in Senegal, where a longtime president voted out of power left office peacefully, and also visited Malawi, a nation that had begun to stifle under an autocratic president. His death was followed by an orderly transfer of power to his deputy, Joyce Banda, a political adversary who now gives Africa two female heads of state. Mrs. Clinton will stop in Ghana for the funeral of President John Atta Mills, whose deputy was sworn in peacefully without anyone batting an eye.

· As the World Bank concluded in a recent report, “Africa could be on the brink of an economic takeoff, much like China was 30 years ago, and India 20 years ago.”

· China is the biggest, but by no means the only, country making big bets in Africa, and not simply on extracting mineral resources. Indian telecom companies, Brazilian construction firms and other players in the developing world’s rising economies are betting on Africa.

· “There is this newfangled, unprecedented interest in Africa,” said Chris Landsberg, a foreign affairs analyst at the University of Johannesburg. “Every single important country — whether China, France, Britain, India, Brazil, Turkey, you name it — they are all queuing up.”

· New Chinese-built airports mean African airlines are likely to need more Boeing planes. Better roads and ports mean Walmart can move goods faster and more cheaply in Africa.