Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, Egypt: Melania Trump flies away on Monday for a week-long trip to Africa.
A "First Lady" who travels abroad without the president has nothing extraordinary in itself: Michelle Obama has done it several times, in South Africa, in China or in Cambodia.
But the scent of mystery that still surrounds the discreet Melania, almost two years after the election of her husband, and the words of the latter concerning the African continent, which are aroused a wave of indignation, give this journey a relief particular.
This is the first time in her life that the former 48-year-old Slovenian model will set foot on the African continent.
Will it break the ice a little? Will it venture, even allusively, on the political terrain?
For this "diplomatic and humanitarian" visit, according to the words of her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham, the third wife of the American president intends to focus on children.
"Whether it's for education, drug addiction, hunger, internet safety, intimidation, poverty or disease, it's all too often children who are the first victims in the world," she explained. a few days ago from New York.
Beyond meetings with other First Lady, she intends to highlight the work of USAID, the US Agency for Development.
But, insists Stephanie Grisham, she does not go on a controlled trip. "It's his journey, his initiative," she told AFP.
In fact, both in the United States and on the international scene, the First Lady has so far kept her husband's initiatives at a distance, in a form of neutrality, in sharp contrast to many who have preceded by this function.
To date, "she was not the lawyer, or the mouthpiece of its policies," says Anita McBride, former "Chief of Staff" Laura Bush, wife of George W. Bush, who teaches today at the American University in Washington.
"Number of First Ladies were political assets for their husband, even when they were very unpopular," she recalls, citing among others the case of Lady Bird Johnson, wife of Lyndon Johnson, who had traveled south of United States during the 1964 presidential campaign.
Melania Trump, "a woman of few words," is "very independent, she meant it right from the start, right after the election, when she said she would not move to Washington immediately," adds Anita McBride.
"We love Africa"
Still, the trip could be tricky.
"We both love Africa," Donald Trump told the UN a few days ago. "Africa is beautiful. The most beautiful place in the world in many ways.
Beyond this formula from a president fond of superlatives, Donald Trump has, since coming to power in January 2017, never shown a marked interest in this continent.
And the few times he mentioned it, the controversy was violent.
In January, during a meeting at the White House, he was indignant, speaking of Haiti and African countries, immigration from "shitty country". He never explicitly challenged these remarks, held during a meeting in camera with elected officials and which left traces.
New size controversy in August. The only time he was openly involved in the internal affairs of an African country was to denounce ... the fate of white farmers in South Africa, which he said was "a large-scale killing."
In a country embarked on an agrarian reform to repair, more than 20 years after the fall of apartheid, the blatant injustices inherited from the segregationist regime, the remarks are badly spent. "Let him take care of his America, we'll take care of South Africa," the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had said.
Notable fact: Melania Trump leaves Washington in full steam ahead of crucial parliamentary elections for the second part of Donald Trump's term. It has so far remained totally out of the debate.
The contrast is striking with the last mid-term elections in 2014.
At the time, Michelle Obama had increased Wisconsin travel to Iowa to defend Barack's record and warned Democratic voters against the risk of apathy. "It's my man!", She said with a smile on the platforms highlighting the path traveled since the arrival of her husband in power.
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