THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you, everybody, please have a seat.  Have a seat.

Well, good afternoon, everybody.

AUDIENCE:  Good afternoon.

THE PRESIDENT:  Welcome to the White House, and welcome to the United States of America.  And that includes even our friends from Ghana, who beat us in the World Cup.  (Laughter.)  Where are you?  Over there?  That's all right.  It was close.  We’ll see you in 2014.  (Laughter.)

It’s my great privilege（特权，优待） to welcome all of you to this Young African Leaders Forum.  You’ve joined us from nearly 50 countries.  You reflect the extraordinary history and diversity of the continent.  You’ve already distinguished（区别） yourselves as leaders —- in civil society and development and business and faith communities —- and you’ve got an extraordinary future before you.

In fact, you represent the Africa that so often is overlooked -- the great progress that many Africans have achieved and the unlimited potential that you’ve got going forward into the 21st century.

Now, I called this forum for a simple reason.  As I said when I was in Accra last year, I don’t see Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected（连通的，有联系的） world.  Whether it’s creating jobs in a global economy, or delivering education and health care, combating climate change, standing up to violent extremists who offer nothing but destruction, or promoting successful models of democracy and development —- for all this we have to have a strong, self-reliant and prosperous（繁荣的，兴旺的） Africa.  So the world needs your talents and your creativity.  We need young Africans who are standing up and making things happen not only in their own countries but around the world.

And the United States wants to be your partner.  So I’m pleased that you’ve already heard from Secretary of State Clinton, and that we’re joined today by leaders from across my administration who are working to deepen that partnership every day.

I can’t imagine a more fitting time for this gathering.  This year, people in 17 nations across Sub-Saharan Africa are proudly celebrating 50 years of independence.  And by any measure, 1960 was an extraordinary year.  From Senegal to Gabon, from Madagascar to Nigeria, Africans rejoiced in the streets —- as foreign flags were lowered and their own were hoisted up.  So in 12 remarkable months, nearly one-third of the continent achieved independence —- a burst of self-determination that came to be celebrated as “The Year of Africa” -- at long last, these Africans were free to chart their own course and to shape their own destiny.

Now, 1960, of course, was significant for another reason.  Here in the United States of America it was the year that a candidate for president first proposed an idea for young people in our own country to devote a year or two abroad in service to the world.  And that candidate was John F. Kennedy, and that idea would become the Peace Corps -- one of our great partnerships with the world, including with Africa.

Now, the great task of building a nation is never done.  Here in America, more than two centuries since our independence, we’re still working to perfect our union.  Across Africa today, there’s no denying the daily hardships that are faced by so many -- the struggle to feed their children, to find work, to survive another day.  And too often, that’s the Africa that the world sees.
 
But today, you represent a different vision, a vision of Africa on the move -- an Africa that’s ending old conflicts, as in Liberia, where President Sirleaf told me, today’s children have “not known a gun and not had to run”; an Africa that’s modernizing and creating opportunities -- agribusiness（农业综合企业） in Tanzania, prosperity in Botswana, political progress in Ghana and Guinea; an Africa that’s pursuing a broadband revolution that could transform the daily lives of future generations.

So it’s an Africa that can do great things, such as hosting the world’s largest sporting event.  So we congratulate our South African friends.  And while it may have been two European teams in the final match, it’s been pointed out that it was really Africa that won the World Cup.

So once again, Africa finds itself at a moment of extraordinary promise.  And as I said last year, while today’s challenges may lack some of the drama of 20th century liberation struggles, they ultimately may be even more meaningful, for it will be up to you, young people full of talent and imagination, to build the Africa for the next 50 years.

Africa’s future belongs to entrepreneurs（企业家） like the small business owner from Djibouti who began selling ice cream and now runs his own accounting practice and advises other entrepreneurs -- that’s Miguil Hasan-Farah.  Is Miguil here?  There he is right there.  Don’t be shy.  There you go.  (Applause.) 

As you work to create jobs and opportunity, America will work with you, promoting the trade and investment on which growth depends.  That’s why we’re proud to be hosting the AGOA Forum this week to expand trade between our countries.  And today I’ll also be meeting with trade, commerce, and agriculture ministers from across Sub-Saharan Africa.  It’s also why our historic Food Security Initiative isn’t simply about delivering food; it’s about sharing new technologies to increase African productivity and self-sufficiency.