Chancellor Scholz's predecessors also traveled to Africa from time to time.
But the political commitment on the large continent on Europe's doorstep was not taken seriously.
Although Germany was once a colonial power itself, other Western countries, especially France, were willingly given precedence.
This is also a consequence of the fact that Berlin was fixated on China in foreign trade policy for so long.
The returns are higher there.
If you want to be a leading European power, you can afford this policy even less today than you could a few years ago.
The rift with Russia teaches that Germany needs to invest much more time and money in building a global network of allies if it does not want to fall back into problematic dependencies.
Harder boards in Africa
The major issues of the next few years will all come up at the three stops on the Chancellor's trip to Africa: energy, security, trade and climate protection.
On the continent there are definitely tougher problems to be drilled than elsewhere, but even when it comes to investments it is noticeable that Germany is clearly lagging behind in comparison to other western countries.
And China and Russia are also making intensive efforts for Africa.
People in Germany often complained about that, but never really tried to do anything about it.
The federal government in Mali learned bitterly how it is not possible.
The fact that the Bundeswehr training mission is now being transferred to Niger makes sense;
It would also be good to find a follow-up project for the other operation, which has been running there since 2018, as the Chancellor announced.
On the other hand, further participation in the UN mission in Mali, which the Bundestag has just approved, is questionable, if only because there has been no replacement for the French forces that have been lost.
Above all, it would be important for Germany to finally get involved extensively in Africa.
Development aid alone has long ceased to be the case, not even military ones.