Assistant Secretaries of State for African Affairs
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Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last
updated March 14, 2024.
On July 18, 1958, Congress authorized an eleventh Assistant Secretary of State (P.L. 85-524; 72 Stat. 363), enabling the Department of State to create a bureau to deal with relations with the newly independent nations of Africa. The Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs resumed responsibility for relations with the nations of North Africa on Apr 22, 1974. When the Department of State established three geographical divisions in 1909, African affairs were the responsibility of the Divisions of Near Eastern and Western European Affairs. Department Order No. 692 of Jun 15, 1937, transferred responsibility for all African territories except Algeria and the Union of South Africa to the Division of Near Eastern Affairs. A Division of African Affairs was created in the office of Near Eastern Affairs in Jan 1944. This administrative relationship continued after the establishment of the Bureau of Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs in 1949.
- Joseph Charles Satterthwaite (1958–1961)
- Gerhard Mennen Williams (1961–1966)
- Joseph Palmer II (1966–1969)
- David Dunlap Newsom (1969–1974)
- Donald Boyd Easum (1974–1975)
- Nathaniel Davis (1975)
- William Everett Schaufele Jr. (1975–1977)
- Richard Menifee Moose (1977–1981)
- Chester A. Crocker (1981–1989)
- Herman Jay Cohen (1989–1993)
- George Edward Moose (1993–1997)
- Susan Rice (1997–2001)
- Walter Kansteiner (2001–2003)
- Constance Berry Newman (2004–2005)
- Jendayi Elizabeth Frazer (2005–2009)
- Johnnie Carson (2009–2013)
- Linda Thomas-Greenfield (2013–2017)
- Tibor P. Nagy Jr. (2018)