First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton donned a traditional dress and danced with Eritrea's president Saturday to celebrate the country's status as Africa's newest democracy.
Her performance came at the end of a daylong visit to Eritrea, independent from Ethiopia only since 1993, its economy shattered from its long war for independence but its people declaring their will to rebound. It was the last stop for her and her daughter Chelsea on their two-week tour of six African nations, and they were to arrive back in Washington Sunday.During a day in the arid desert highlands of Eritrea, the first lady honored women who were in the rebel army against Ethiopia and who are now binding together to find work and rebuild their lives.
She and her daughter were showered with popcorn by Eritrean women, a traditional welcome. Hillary Clinton laid a wreath at Asmara's cemetery of patriots and dedicated a new health care clinic while Eritrean women danced and ululated.
But the most symbolic event was at sunset outside the front of the presidential palace, with palm trees blowing in a breeze. Mrs. Clinton appeared in a white, gauzy cotton dress called a tilfi and sat with the ex-rebel leader, President Isayas Afewerki, as a traditional dance and music troupe performed for them.
Then she and Afewerki, along with other Eritrean dignitaries and U.S. officials such as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs George Moose, took the stage and danced, going around in a circle one-by-one and taking short, slow steps.
Speaking afterward, Mrs. Clinton said she had asked Afewerki if there was much dancing during Eritrea's 30-year struggle for independence and he said "there had to be dancing in order for the people to keep fighting and not to be discouraged."
"We are encouraged and impressed by what we see of the spirit of the people and the determination to tackle the problems that your new nation faces," she said.
She pledged the U.S. government, American business and nongovernmental organizations would help Eritrea in its rebuilding.
Domestic U.S. politics surfaced during a roundtable discussion that Mrs. Clinton held with prominent Eritrean women. She was asked why the United States had not ratified U.N. conventions on the elimination of discrimination against women and to protect the rights of children.
She blamed conservative Republicans in Congress who she said feel the United States would be giving up some authority by approving the conventions.
She said it was "embarrassing that our country is one of the very few countries not to have passed" the conventions.